The interpretation of dreams

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D EREUD. LL.D.

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THE INTERPRETATION
OF DREAMS

BY

Prof. Dr. SIGMUND FREUD, LL.D.

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION OF THIRD EDITION
WITH INTRODUCTION

BY

A. A. BRILL, Ph.B., M.D.

CHIEF OP THE NEUROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE BRONX HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY

CLINICAL ASSISTANT IN NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

FORMER ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN IN THE CENTRAL ISLIP STATE HOSPITAL

AND IN THE CLINIC OF PSYCHIATRY, ZÜRICH

" Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movcbo "

NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1913

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

In attempting a discussion of the Interpretation of Dreams, I
do not believe that I have overstepped the bounds of neuro-
pathological interest. For, on psychological investigation,
the dream proves to be the first link in a chain of abnormal
psychic structures whose other links, the hysterical phobia,
the obsession, and the delusion must, for practical reasons,
claim the interest of the physician. The dream (as will
appear) can lay no claim to a corresponding practical signi-
ficance ; its theoretical value as a paradigm is, however, all
the greater, and one who cannot explain the origin of the
dream pictures will strive in vain to understand the phobias,
obsessive and delusional ideas, and likewise their therapeutic
importance.

But this relation, to which our subject owes its importance,
is responsible also for the deficiencies in the work before us.
The surfaces of fracture which will be found so frequently in
this discussion correspond to so many points of contact at
which the problem of the dream formation touches more
comprehensive problems of psychopathology, which cannot be
discussed here, and which will be subjected to future elabora-
tion if there should be sufficient time and energy, and if further
material should be forthcoming.

Peculiarities in the material I have used to elucidate the
interpretation of dreams have rendered this publication diffi-
cult. From the work itself it will appear why all dreams
related in the literature or collected by others had to remain
useless for my purpose ; for examples I had to choose between
my own dreams and those of my patients who were under
psychoanalytic treatment. I was restrained from utilising
the latter material by the fact that in it the dream processes
were subjected to an undesirable complication on account
of the intermixture of neurotic characters. On the other

vi THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

hand, inseparably connected with my own dreams was the cir-
cumstance that I was obliged to expose more of the intimacies
of my psychic life than I should like and than generally falls
to the task of an author who is not a poet but an investigator
of nature. This was painful, but unavoidable ; I had to put
up with the inevitable in order not to be obliged to forego
altogether the demonstration of the truth of my psycho-
logical results. To be sure, I could not at best resist the temp-
tation of disguising some of my indiscretions through omissions
and substitutions, and as often as this happened it detracted
materially from the value of the examples which I employed.
I can only express the hope that the reader of this work,
putting himself in my difficult position, will show forbearance,
and also that all persons who are inclined to take offence at
any of the dreams reported will concede freedom of thought
at least to the dream life.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

If there has arisen a demand for a second edition of this rather
difficult book before the end of the first decade, I owe no
gratitude to the interest of the professional circles to whom
I appealed in the preceding sentences. My colleagues in
psychiatry, apparently, have made no effort to shake off the
first surprise which my new conception of the dream evoked,
and the professional philosophers, who are accustomed to treat
the problem of dream life as a part of the states of con-
sciousness, devoting to it a few — for the most part identical
— sentences, have apparently failed to observe that in this
field could be found all kinds of things which would inevit-
ably lead to a thorough transformation of our psychological
theories. The behaviour of the scientific critics could only
justify the expectation that this work of mine was destined
to be buried in oblivion ; and the small troop of brave pupils
who follow my leadership in the medical application of psycho-
analysis, and also follow my example in analysing dreams in
order to utilise these analyses in the treatment of neurotics,
would not have exhausted the first edition of the book. I
therefore feel indebted to that wider circle of intelligent
seekers after truth whose co-operation has procured for me
the invitation to take up anew, after nine years, the difficult
and in so many respects fundamental work.

I am glad to be able to say that I have found little to
change. Here and there I have inserted new material, added
new views from my wider experience, and attempted to revise
certain points ; but everything essential concerning the dream
and its interpretation, as well as the psychological proposi-
tions derived from it, has remained unchanged : at least,
subjectively, it has stood the test of time. Those who are
acquainted with my other works on the Etiology and Mechan-
ism of the psychoneuroses, know that I have never offered

viii THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

anything unfinished as finished, and that I have always striven
to change my assertions in accordance with my advancing
views ; but in the realm of the dream life I have been able to
stand by my first declarations. During the long years of my
work on the problems of the neuroses, I have been repeatedly
confronted with doubts, and have often made mistakes ; but
it was always in the " interpretation of dreams " that I found
my bearings. My numerous scientific opponents, therefore,
show an especially sure instinct when they refuse to follow me
into this territory of dream investigation .

Likewise, the material used in this book to illustrate the
rules of dream interpretation, drawn chiefly from dreams of
my own which have been depreciated and outstripped by
events, have in the revision shown a persistence which re-
sisted substantial changes. For me, indeed, the book has
still another subjective meaning which I could comprehend
only after it had been completed. It proved to be for me a
part of my self -analysis, a reaction to the death of my father
— that is, to the most significant event, the deepest loss, in
the life of a man. After I recognised this I felt powerless to
efface the traces of this influence. For the reader, however,
it makes no difference from what material he learns to value
and interpret dreams.

Berchtesgaden, Summer of 1908.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

Whereas a period of nine years elapsed between the first and
second editions of this book, the need for a third edition has
appeared after little more than a year. I have reason to be
pleased with this change ; but, just as I have not considered
the earlier neglect of my work on the part of the reader as a
proof of its unworthiness, I am unable to find in the interest
manifested at present a proof of its excellence.

The progress in scientific knowledge has shown its influ-
ence on the Interpretation of Dreams. When I wrote it in
1899 the " Sexual Theories " was not yet in existence, and the
analysis of complicated forms of psychoneuroses was still in
its infancy. The interpretation of dreams was destined to
aid in the psychological analysis of the neuroses, but since
then the deeper understanding of the neuroses has reacted
on our conception of the dream. The study of dream in-
terpretation itself has continued to develop in a direction
upon which not enough stress was laid in the first edition of
this book. From my own experience, as well as from the
works of W. Stekel and others, I have since learned to attach
a greater value to the extent and the significance of sym-
bolism in dreams (or rather in the unconscious thinking).
Thus much has accumulated in the course of this year which
requires consideration. I have endeavoured to do justice to
this new material by numerous insertions in the text and by
the addition of footnotes. If these supplements occasionally
threaten to warp the original discussion, or if, even with their
aid, we have been unsuccessful in raising the original text to the
niveau of our present views, I must beg indulgence for the
gaps in the book, as they are only consequences and indica-
tions of the present rapid development of our knowledge. I
also venture to foretell in what other directions later edi-
tions of the Interpretation of Dreams — in case any should be

x THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

demanded — will differ from the present one. They will have,
on the one hand, to include selections from the rich material
of poetry, myth, usage of language, and folklore, and, on the
other hand, to treat more profoundly the relations of the
dream to the neuroses and to mental diseases.

Mr. Otto Rank has rendered me valuable service in the
selection of the addenda and in reading the proof sheets. I
am gratefully indebted to him and to many others for their
contributions and corrections.

Vienna, Spring of 1911.

TRANSLATORS PREFACE

Since the appearance of the author's Selected Papers on
Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses, and Three Contributions to
the Sexual Theory* much has been said and written about
Freud's works. Some of our readers have made an honest
endeavour to test and utilise the author's theories, but they
have been handicapped by their inability to read fluently
very difficult German, for only two of Freud's works have
hitherto been accessible to English readers. For them this
work will be of invaluable assistance. To be sure, numerous
articles on the Freudian psychology have of late made their
appearance in our literature ; f but these scattered papers,
read by those unacquainted with the original work, often serve
to confuse rather than enlighten. For Freud cannot be
mastered from the reading of a few pamphlets, or even one or
two of his original works. Let me repeat what I have so often
said : No one is really qualified to use or to judge Freud's
psychoanalytic method who has not thoroughly mastered
his theory of the neuroses — The Interpretation of Dreams,
Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory, The Psychopathology
of Everyday Life, and Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious,
and who has not had considerable experience in analysing
the dreams and psychopathological actions of himself and
others. That there is required also a thorough training in
normal and abnormal psychology goes without saying.

The Interpretation of Dreams is the author's greatest and
most important work ; it is here that he develops his psycho-
analytic technique, a thorough knowledge of which is abso-
lutely indispensable for every worker in this field. The difficult
task of making a translation of this work has, therefore, been

* Translated by A. A. Brill (Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
Publishing Company).

f Cf. the works of Ernest Jones, James J. Putnam, the present writer,
and others.

xii THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

undertaken primarily for the purpose of assisting those who
are actively engaged in treating patients by Freud's psycho-
analytic method. Considered apart from its practical aim,
the book presents much that is of interest to the psychologist
and the general reader. For, notwithstanding the fact that
dreams have of late years been the subject of investigation
at the hands of many competent observers, only few have
contributed anything tangible towards their solution ; it was
Freud who divested the dream of its mystery, and solved its
riddles. He not only showed us that the dream is full of
meaning, but amply demonstrated that it is intimately con-
nected with normal and abnormal mental life. It is in the
treatment of the abnormal mental states that we must re-
cognise the most important value of dream interpretation.
The dream does not only reveal to us the cryptic mechanisms
of hallucinations, delusions, phobias, obsessions, and other
psychopathological conditions, but it is also the most potent
instrument in the removal of these.*

I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to
Professor F. C. Prescott for reading the manuscript and for
helping me overcome the almost insurmountable difficulties
in the translation.

A. A. BRILL.

New York City.

* For examples demonstrating these facts, cf. my work, Psychoanalysis ;
its Theories and Practical Application, W. B. Saunders' Publishing Company,
Philadelphia & London.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Scientific Literature on the Problems op

the Dream 1

II. Method of Dream Interpretation : The Analysis

op a Sample Dream 80

III. The Dream is the Fulfilment of a Wish . . 103

IV. Distortion in Dreams 113

V. The Material and Sources of Dreams . . . 138

VI. The Dream- Work 260

VII. The Psychology of the Dream Activities . . 403

VIII. Literary Index . 494

INDEX ......... 501

THE INTERPRETATION OF
DREAMS

I

THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE ON THE
PROBLEMS OF THE DREAM*

In the following pages I shall prove that there exists a psycho-
logical technique by which dreams may be interpreted, and
that upon the application of this method every dream will
show itself to be a senseful psychological structure which
may be introduced into an assignable place in the psychic
activity of the waking state. I shall furthermore endeavour
to explain the processes which give rise to the strangeness
and obscurity of the dream, and to discover through them
the nature of the psychic forces which operate, whether in
combination or in opposition, to produce the dream. This
accomplished, my investigation will terminate, as it will have
reached the point where the problem of the dream meets with
broader problems, the solution of which must be attempted
through other material.

I must presuppose that the reader is acquainted with the
work done by earlier authors as well as with the present
status of the dream problem in science, since in the course of
this treatise I shall not often have occasion to return to them.
For, notwithstanding the effort of several thousand years,
little progress has been made in the scientific understanding
of dreams. This has been so universally acknowledged by
the authors that it seems unnecessary to quote individual
opinions. One will find in the writings indexed at the end
of this book many stimulating observations and plenty of
interesting material for our subject, but little or nothing

* To the first publication of this book, 1900.

2 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that concerns the true nature of the dream or that solves
definitively any of its enigmas. Still less of course has been
transmitted to the knowledge of the educated laity.

The first book in which the dream is treated as an object
of psychology seems to be that of Aristotle x (Concerning
Dreams and their Interpretation). Aristotle asserts that the
dream is of demoniacal, though not of divine nature, which
indeed contains deep meaning, if it be correctly interpreted.
He was also acquainted with some of the characteristics of
dream life, e.g., he knew that the dream turns slight sensa-
tions perceived during sleep into great ones (" one imagines
that one walks through fire and feels hot, if this or that part
of the body becomes slightly warmed "), which led him to
conclude that dreams might easily betray to the physician
the first indications of an incipient change in the body passing
unnoticed during the day. I have been unable to go more
deeply into the Aristotelian treatise, because of insufficient
preparation and lack of skilled assistance.

As every one knows, the ancients before Aristotle did not
consider the dream a product of the dreaming mind, but a
divine inspiration, and in ancient times the two antagonistic
streams, which one finds throughout in the estimates of
dream life, were already noticeable. They distinguished
between true and valuable dreams, sent to the dreamer to
warn him or to foretell the future, and vain, fraudulent, and
empty dreams, the object of which was to misguide or lead
him to destruction.* This pre-scientific conception of the
dream among the ancients was certainly in perfect keeping
with their general view of life, which was wont to project as
reality in the outer world that which possessed reality only
within the mind. It, moreover, accounted for the main im-

* Compare, on the other hand, O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und
Religionsgeschichte, p. 390. " Dreams were divided into two classes ; the first
were influenced only hy the present (or past), and were unimportant for the
future : they emhraced the ivvwvia, insomnia, which immediately produces
the given idea or its opposite, e.g. hunger or its satiation, and the cpavrda/xara,
which elaborates the given idea phantastically, as e.g. the nightmare, ephialtes.
The second class was, on the other hand, determinant for the future. To
this belong: (1) direct prophecies received in the dream (xpviUiaTta'^i, oracu-
lum) ; (2) the foretelling of a future event (Öpa/ia) ■ (3) the symbolic or the
dream requiring interpretation (6veipos, somnium). This theory has been
preserved for many centuries."

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 3

pression made upon the waking life by the memory left from
the dream in the morning, for in this memory the dream, as
compared with the rest of the psychic content, seems some-
thing strange, coming, as it were, from another world. It
would likewise be wrong to suppose that the theory of the
supernatural origin of dreams lacks followers in our own day ;
for leaving out of consideration all bigoted and mystical
authors — who are perfectly justified in adhering to the
remnants of the once extensive realm of the supernatural
until they have been swept away by scientific explanation
— one meets even sagacious men averse to anything adven-
turous, who go so far as to base their religious belief in the
existence and co-operation of superhuman forces on the
inexplicableness of the dream manifestations (Hafmer 32).
The validity ascribed to the dream life by some schools of
philosophy, e.g. the school of Schelling, is a distinct echo of
the undisputed divinity of dreams in antiquity, nor is dis-
cussion closed on the subject of the mantic or prophetic power
of dreams. This is due to the fact that the attempted psycho-
logical explanations are too inadequate to overcome the
accumulated material, however strongly all those who devote
themselves to a scientific mode of thought may feel that such
assertions should be repudiated.

To write a history of our scientific knowledge of dream
problems is so difficult because, however valuable some parts
of this knowledge may have been, no progress in definite
directions has been discernible. There has been no con-
struction of a foundation of assured results upon which future
investigators could continue to build, but every new author
takes up the same problems afresh and from the very beginning.
Were I to follow the authors in chronological order, and give
a review of the opinions each has held concerning the problems
of the dream, I should be prevented from drawing a clear and
complete picture of the present state of knowledge on the
subject. I have therefore preferred to base the treatment
upon themes rather than upon the authors, and I shall cite
for each problem of the dream the material found in the
literature for its solution.

But as I have not succeeded in mastering the entire
literature, which is widely disseminated and interwoven with

4 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that on other subjects, I must ask my readers to rest content
provided no fundamental fact or important viewpoint be lost
in my description.

Until recently most authors have been led to treat the
subjects of sleep and dream in the same connection, and with
them they have also regularly treated analogous states of
psychopathology, and other dreamlike states like hallucina-
tions, visions, &c. In the more recent works, on the other
hand, there has been a tendency to keep more closely to the
theme, and to take as the subject one single question of the
dream life. This change, I believe, is an expression of the
conviction that enlightenment and agreement in such obscure
matters can only be brought about by a series of detailed
investigations. It is such a detailed investigation and one of
a special psychological nature, that I would offer here. I have
little occasion to study the problem of sleep, as it is essentially
a psychological problem, although the change of functional
determinations for the mental apparatus must be included in
the character of sleep. The literature of sleep will therefore
not be considered here.

A scientific interest in the phenomena of dreams as such
leads to the following in part interdependent inquiries :

(a) The Relation of the Dream to the Waking State. — The naive
judgment of a person on awakening assumes that the dream —
if indeed it does not originate in another world — at any rate
has taken the dreamer into another world. The old physio-
logist, Burdach,8 to whom we are indebted for a careful and
discriminating description of the phenomena of dreams, ex-
pressed this conviction in an often-quoted passage, p. 474 :
" The waking life never repeats itself with its trials and joys,
its pleasures and pains, but, on the contrary, the dream aims to
relieve us of these. Even when our whole mind is filled with
one subject, when profound sorrow has torn our hearts or
when a task has claimed the whole power of our mentality, the
dream either gives us something entirely strange, or it takes for
its combinations only a few elements from reality, or it only
enters into the strain of our mood and symbolises reality."

L. Strümpell 68 expresses himself to the same effect in his
Nature and Origin of Dreams (p. 16), a study which is every-
where justly held ir> high respect : "He who dreams turns

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 5

his back upon the world of waking consciousness " (p. 17). "In
the dream the memory of the orderly content of the waking
consciousness and its normal behaviour is as good as entirely
lost " (p. 19). " The almost complete isolation of the mind
in the dream from the regular normal content and course of
the waking state ..."

But the overwhelming majority of the authors have
assumed a contrary view of the relation of the dream to
waking life. Thus Haffner 32 (p. 19) : " First of all the dream
is the continuation of the waking state. Our dreams always
unite themselves with those ideas which have shortly before
been in our consciousness. Careful examination will nearly
always find a thread by which the dream has connected itself
with the experience of the previous day." Weygandt 75
(p. 6), flatly contradicts the above cited statement of Burdach :
" For it may often be observed, apparently in the great
majority of dreams, that they lead us directly back into
everyday life, instead of releasing us from it." Maury 48
(p. 56), says in a concise formula : " Nous revons de ce que
nous avons vu, dit, desire ou fait." Jessen, 36 in his Psychology,
published in 1855 (p. 530), is somewhat more explicit : " The
content of dreams is more or less determined by the individual
personality, by age, sex, station in life, education, habits, and
by events and experiences of the whole past life."

The ancients had the same idea about the dependence of
the dream content upon life. I cite Radestock 54 (p. 139) :
" When Xerxes, before his march against Greece, was dis-
suaded from this resolution by good counsel, but was again
and again incited by dreams to undertake it, one of the old
rational dream-interpreters of the Persians, Artabanus, told
him very appropriately that dream pictures mostly contain
that of which one has been thinking while awake."

In the didactic poem of Lucretius, De Rerum Natura
(IV, v. 959), occurs this passage : —

" Et quo quisque fere studio devinctus adhaeret,
aut quibus in rebus multum sumus ante morati
atque in ea ratione fuit contenta magis mens,
in somnis eadem plerumque videmur obire ;
causidici causas agere et componere leges,
induperatores pugnare ac proelia obire," &c, &c.

6 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Cicero {De Divinatione, II) says quite similarly, as does
also Maury much later : —

" Maximeque reliquiae earum rerum moventur in animis
et agitantur, de quibus vigilantes aut cogitavimus aut egimus."

The contradiction expressed in these two views as to the
relation between dream life and waking life seems indeed
insoluble. It will therefore not be out of place to mention
the description of F. W. Hildebrandt 35 (1875), who believes
that the peculiarities of the dream can generally be described
only by calling them a " series of contrasts which apparently
shade off into contradictions " (p. 8). " The first of these
contrasts is formed on the one hand by the strict isolation or
seclusion of the dream from true and actual life, and on the
other hand by the continuous encroachment of the one upon
the other, and the constant dependency of one upon the
other. The dream is something absolutely separated from
the reality experienced during the waking state ; one may call
it an existence hermetically sealed up and separated from
real life by an unsurmountable chasm. It frees us from
reality, extinguishes normal recollection of reality, and places
us in another world and in a totally different life, which at
bottom has nothing in common with reality. . . ." Hildebrandt
then asserts that in falling asleep our whole being, with all its
forms of existence, disappears " as through an invisible trap
door." In the dream one is perhaps making a voyage to
St. Helena in order to offer the imprisoned Napoleon something
exquisite in the way of Moselle wine. One is most amicably
received by the ex-emperor, and feels almost sorry when the
interesting illusion is destroyed on awakening. But let us
now compare the situation of the dream with reality. The
dreamer has never been a wine merchant, and has no desire to
become one. He has never made a sea voyage, and St. Helena
is the last place he would take as destination for such a voyage.
The dreamer entertains no sympathetic feeling for Napoleon,
but on the contrary a strong patriotic hatred. And finally the
dreamer was not yet among the living when Napoleon died on
the island ; so that it was beyond the reach of possibility for
him to have had any personal relations with Napoleon. The
dream experience thus appears as something strange, inserted
between two perfectly harmonising and succeeding periods.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 7

" Nevertheless," continues Hildebrandt, " the opposite is
seemingly just as true and correct. I believe that hand in
hand with this seclusion and isolation there can still exist
the most intimate relation and connection. We may justly
say that no matter what the dream offers, it finds its material
in reality and in the psychic life arrayed around this reality.
However strange the dream may seem, it can never detach
itself from reality, and its most sublime as well as its most
farcical structures must always borrow their elementary
material either from what we have seen with our eyes in the
outer world, or from what has previously found a place some-
where in our waking thoughts ; in other words, it must be
taken from what we had already experienced either objectively
or subjectively."

(b) The Material of the Dream. — Memory in the Dream. —
That all the material composing the content of the dream in
some way originates in experience, that it is reproduced in
the dream, or recalled, — this at least may be taken as an
indisputable truth. Yet it would be wrong to assume that
such connection between dream content and reality will be
readily disclosed as an obvious product of the instituted com-
parison. On the contrary, the connection must be carefully
sought, and in many cases it succeeds in eluding discovery for
a long time. The reason for this is to be found in a number of
peculiarities evinced by the memory in dreams, which, though
universally known, have hitherto entirely eluded explanation.
It will be worth while to investigate exhaustively these
characteristics.

It often happens that matter appears in the dream content
which one cannot recognise later in the waking state as be-
longing to one's knowledge and experience. One remembers
well enough having dreamed about the subject in question,
but cannot recall the fact or time of the experience. The
dreamer is therefore in the dark as to the source from which
the dream has been drawing, and is even tempted to believe
an independently productive activity on the part of the
dream, until, often long afterwards, a new episode brings back
to recollection a former experience given up as lost, and thus
reveals the source of the dream. One is thus forced to admit
that something has been known and remembered in the dream

8 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that has been withdrawn from memory during the waking
state.

Delbceuf 16 narrates from his own experience an especially
impressive example of this kind. He saw in his dream the
courtyard of his house covered with snow, and found two
little lizards half-frozen and buried in the snow. Being a
lover of animals, he picked them up, warmed them, and put
them back into a crevice in the wall which was reserved for
them. He also gave them some small fern leaves that had
been growing on the wall, which he knew they were fond
of. In the dream he knew the name of the plant : Asplenium
ruta muralis. The dream then continued, returning after a
digression to the lizards, and to his astonishment Delbceuf
saw two other little animals falling upon what was left of the
ferns. On turning his eyes to the open field he saw a fifth
and a sixth lizard running into the hole in the wall, and finally
the street was covered with a procession of lizards, all wander-
ing in the same direction, &c.

In his waking state Delbceuf knew only a few Latin names
of plants, and nothing of the Asplenium. To his great surprise
he became convinced that a fern of this name really existed
and that the correct name was Asplenium ruta muraria, which
the dream had slightly disfigured. An accidental coincidence
could hardly be considered, but it remained a mystery for
Delbceuf whence he got his knowledge of the name Asplenium
in the dream.

The dream occurred in 1862. Sixteen years later, while
at the house of one of his friends, the philosopher noticed a
small album containing dried plants resembling the albums
that are sold as souvenirs to visitors in many parts of Switzer-
land. A sudden recollection occurred to him ; he opened
the herbarium, and discovered therein the Asplenium of his
dream, and recognised his own handwriting in the accom-
panying Latin name. The connection could now be traced.
While on her wedding trip, a sister of this friend visited Delbceuf
in 1860 — two years prior to the lizard dream. She had with
her at the time this album, which was intended for her brother,
and Delbceuf took the trouble to write, at the dictation of a
botanist, under each of the dried plants the Latin name.

The favourable accident which made possible the report of

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 9

this valuable example also permitted Delbceuf to trace another
portion of this dream to its forgotten source. One day in
1877 he came upon an old volume of an illustrated journal,
in which he found pictured the whole procession of lizards
just as he had dreamed it in 1862. The volume bore the date
of 1861, and Delbceuf could recall that he had subscribed to
the journal from its first appearance.

That the dream has at its disposal recollections which are
inaccessible to the waking state is such a remarkable and
theoretically important fact that I should like to urge more
attention to it by reporting several other " Hypermnesic
Dreams." Maury 48 relates that for some time the word
Mussidan used to occur to his mind during the day. He knew
it to be the name of a French city, but nothing else. One
night he dreamed of a conversation with a certain person who
told him that she came from Mussidan, and, in answer to his
question where the city was, she replied : " Mussidan is a
principal country town in the Departement de La Dordogne."
On waking, Maury put no faith in the information received in
his dream ; the geographical lexicon, however, showed it to be
perfectly correct. In this case the superior knowledge of the
dream is confirmed, but the forgotten source of this knowledge
has not been traced.

Jessen 36 tells (p. 55) of a quite similar dream occurrence,
from more remote times. " Among others we may here
mention the dream of the elder Scaliger (Hennings, I.e., p. 300),
who wrote a poem in praise of celebrated men of Verona, and
to whom a man, named Brugnolus, appeared in a dream,
complaining that he had been neglected. Though Scaliger
did not recall ever having heard of him, he wrote some verses
in his honour, and his son later discovered at Verona that a
Brugnolus had formerly been famous there as a critic.

Myers is said to have published a whole collection of such
hypermnesic dreams in the Proceedings of the Society for
Psychical Research, which are unfortunately inaccessible to
me. I believe every one who occupies himself with dreams
will recognise as a very common phenomenon the fact that the
dream gives proof of knowing and recollecting matters unknown
to the waking person. In my psychoanalytic investigations
of nervous patients, of which I shall speak later, I am every

10 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

week more than once in position to convince my patients from
their dreams that they are well acquainted with quotations,
obscene expressions, &c, and that they make use of these in
their dreams, although they have forgotten them in the waking
state. I shall cite here a simple case of dream hypermnesia
because it was easy to trace the source which made the know-
ledge accessible to the dream.

A patient dreamed in a lengthy connection that he ordered
a " Kontuszöwka " in a cafe, and after reporting this inquired
what it might mean, as he never heard the name before. I
was able to answer that Kontuszöwka was a Polish liquor
which he could not have invented in his dream, as the name
had long been familiar to me in advertisements. The patient
would not at first believe me, but some days later, after he had
realised his dream of the cafe, he noticed the name on a sign-
board at the street corner, which he had been obliged to pass
for months at least twice a day.

I have learned from my own dreams how largely the dis-
covery of the origin of some of the dream elements depends
on accident. Thus, for years before writing this book, I was
haunted by the picture of a very simply formed church tower
which I could not recall having seen. I then suddenly re-
cognised it with absolute certainty at a small station between
Salzburg and Reichenhall. This was in the later nineties,
and I had travelled over the road for the first time in the year
1886. In later years, when I was already busily engaged in
the study of dreams, I was quite annoyed at the frequent re-
currence of the dream picture of a certain peculiar locality.
I saw it in definite local relation to my person — to my left, a
dark space from which many grotesque sandstone figures
stood out. A glimmer of recollection, which I did not quite
credit, told me it was the entrance to a beer-cellar, but I
could explain neither the meaning nor the origin of this dream
picture. In 1907 I came by chance to Padua, which, to my
regret, I had been unable to visit since 1895. My first visit
to this beautiful university city was unsatisfactory ; I was
unable to see Giotto's frescoes in the church of the Madonna
dell' Arena, and on my way there turned back on being in-
formed that the little church was closed on the day. On my
second visit, twelve years later, I thought of compensating

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 11

myself for this, and before everything else I started out for
Madonna dell' Arena. On the street leading to it, on my left,
probably at the place where I had turned in 1895, I discovered
the locality which I had so often seen in the dream, with its
sandstone figures. It was in fact the entrance to a restaurant
garden.

One of the sources from which the dream draws material
for reproduction — material which in part is not recalled or
employed in waking thought — is to.be found in childhood. I
shall merely cite some of the authors who have observed and
emphasized this.

Hildebrandt 35 (p. 23) : " It has already been expressly
admitted that the dream sometimes brings back to the mind
with wonderful reproductive ability remote and even forgotten
experiences from the earliest periods."

Strümpell 66 (p. 40) : " The subject becomes more inter-
esting when we remember how the dream sometimes brings
forth, as it were, from among the deepest and heaviest strata
which later years have piled upon the earliest childhood ex-
periences, the pictures of certain places, things, and persons,
quite uninjured and with their original freshness. This is not
limited merely to such impressions as have gained vivid con-
sciousness during their origin or have become impressed with
strong psychic validity, and then later return in the dream as
actual reminiscences, causing pleasure to the awakened con-
sciousness. On the contrary, the depths of the dream memory
comprise also such pictures of persons, things, places, and
early experiences as either possessed but little consciousness
and no psychic value at all, or have long ago lost both, and there-
fore appear totally strange and unknown both in the dream and
in the waking state, until their former origin is revealed."

Volkelt72 (p. 119): "It is essentially noteworthy how
easily infantile and youthful reminiscences enter into the
dream. What we have long ceased to think about, what has
long since lost for us all importance, is constantly recalled by
the dream."

The sway of the dream over the infantile material, which,
as is well known, mostly occupies the gaps in the conscious
memory, causes the origin of interesting hypermnestic dreams,
a few of which I shall here report.

12 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Maury 48 relates (p. 92) that as a child he often went from
his native city, Meaux, to the neighbouring Trilport, where
his father superintended the construction of a bridge. On a
certain night a dream transported him to Trilport, and he was
again playing in the city streets. A man approached him
wearing some sort of uniform. Maury asked him his name,

and he introduced himself, saying that his name was C ,

and that he was a bridge guard. On waking, Maury, who
still doubted the reality of the reminiscence, asked his old
servant, who had been with him in his childhood, whether she
remembered a man of this name. " Certainly," was the
answer, " he used to be watchman on the bridge which your
father was building at that time."

Maury reports another example demonstrating just as
nicely the reliability of infantile reminiscences appearing in

dreams. Mr. F , who had lived as a child in Montbrison,

decided to visit his home and old friends of his family after
an absence of twenty-five years. The night before his de-
parture he dreamt that he had reached his destination, and
that he met near Montbrison a man, whom he did not know by
sight, who told him he was Mr. F., a friend of his father. The
dreamer remembered that as a child he had known a gentle-
man of this name, but on waking he could no longer recall his
features. Several days later, having really arrived at Mont-
brison, he found the supposedly unknown locality of his dream,
and there met a man whom he at once recognised as the Mr. F.
of his dream. The real person was only older than the one in
the dream picture.

I may here relate one of my own dreams in which the
remembered impression is replaced by an association. In my
dream I saw a person whom I recognised, while dreaming, as
the physician of my native town. The features were indistinct
and confused with the picture of one of my colleague teachers,
whom I still see occasionally. What association there was
between the two persons I could not discover on awakening.
But upon questioning my mother about the physician of my
early childhood, I discovered that he was a one-eyed man.
My teacher, whose figure concealed that of the physician in
the dream, was also one-eyed. I have not seen the physician
for thirty-eight years, and I havo not to my knowledge thought

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 13

of him in my waking state, although a scar on my chin might
have reminded me of his help.

As if to counterbalance the immense role ascribed to the
infantile impressions in the dream, many authors assert that
the majority of dreams show elements from the most recent
time. Thus Robert 55 (p. 46) declares that the normal dream
generally occupies itself only with the impressions of the
recent days. We learn indeed that the theory of the dream
advanced by Robert imperatively demands that the old im-
pressions should be pushed back, and the recent ones brought
to the front. Nevertheless the fact claimed by Robert really
exists ; I can confirm this from my own investigations.
Nelson,50 an American author, thinks that the impressions most
frequently found in the dream date from two or three days
before, as if the impressions of the day immediately preceding
the dream were not sufficiently weakened and remote.

Many authors who are convinced of the intimate connec-
tion between the dream content and the waking state are im-
pressed by the fact that impressions which have intensely
occupied the waking mind appear in the dream only after they
have been to some extent pushed aside from the elaboration
of the waking thought. Thus, as a rule, we do not dream of a
dead beloved person while we are still overwhelmed with
sorrow. Still Miss Hallam,33 one of the latest observers, has
collected examples showing the very opposite behaviour, and
claims for the point the right of individual psychology.

The third and the most remarkable and incomprehensible
peculiarity of the memory in dreams, is shown in the selection
of the reproduced material, for stress is laid not only on the
most significant, but also on the most indifferent and super-
ficial reminiscences. On this point I shall quote those authors
who have expressed their surprise in the most emphatic manner.

Hildebrandt35 (p. 11) : "For it is a remarkable fact that
dreams do not, as a rule, take their elements from great and
deep-rooted events or from the powerful and urgent interests
of the preceding day, but from unimportant matters, from the
most worthless fragments of recent experience or of a more
remote past. The most shocking death in our family, the
impressions of which keep us awake long into the night, be-
comes obliterated from our memories, until the first moment

14 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of awakening brings it back to us with depressing force. On
the other hand, the wart on the forehead of a passing stranger,
of whom we did not think for a second after he was out of sight,
plays its part in our dreams."

Strümpell 66 (p. 39) : "... such cases where the analysis
of a dream brings to light elements which, although derived
from events of the previous day or the day before the last,
yet prove to be so unimportant and worthless for the waking
state that they merge into forgetfulness shortly after coming
to light. Such occurrences may be statements of others
heard accidentally or actions superficially observed, or fleeting
perceptions of things or persons, or single phrases from
books, &c."

Havelock Ellis 23 (p. 727) : " The profound emotions of
waking life, the questions and problems on which we spread
our chief voluntary mental energy, are not those which
usually present themselves at once to dream-consciousness.
It is, so far as the immediate past is concerned, mostly the
trifling, the incidental, the " forgotten " impressions of daily
life which reappear in our dreams. The psychic activities
that are awake most intensely are those that sleep most
profoundly."

Binz 4 (p. 45) takes occasion from the above-mentioned
characteristics of the memory in dreams to express his dis-
satisfaction with explanations of dreams which he himself
has approved of : " And the normal dream raises similar
questions. Why do we not always dream of memory im-
pressions from the preceding days, instead of going back to
the almost forgotten past lying far behind us without any
perceptible reason ? Why in a dream does consciousness so
often revive the impression of indifferent memory pictures
while the cerebral cells bearing the most sensitive records of
experience remain for the most part inert and numb, unless an
acute revival during the waking state has shortly before excited
them ? "

We can readily understand how the strange preference
of the dream memory for the indifferent and hence the
unnoticed details of daily experience must usually lead us
to overlook altogether the dependence of the dream on
the waking state, or at least make it difficult to prove this

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 15

dependence in any individual case. It thus happened that in
the statistical treatment of her own and her friend's dreams,
Miss Whiton Calkins 12 found 11 per cent, of the entire number
that showed no relation to the waking state. Hildebrandt
was certainly correct in his assertion that all our dream
pictures could be genetically explained if we devoted enough
time and material to the tracing of their origin. To be sure,
he calls this " a most tedious and thankless job." For it
would at most lead us to ferret out all kinds of quite worthless
psychic material from the most remote corners of the memory
chamber, and to bring to light some very indifferent moments
from the remote past which were perhaps buried the next
hour after their appearance." I must, however, express my
regret that this discerning author refrained from following
the road whose beginning looked so unpromising ; it would
have led him directly to the centre of the dream problem.

The behaviour of the memory in dreams is surely most
significant for every theory of memory in general. It teaches
us that " nothing which we have once psychically possessed
is ever entirely lost " (Scholz 59) ; or as Delboeuf puts it, " que
toute impression meme la plus insignifiante, laisse une trace
inalterable, indefiniment susceptible de reparaitre au jour," a
conclusion to which we are urged by so many of the other
pathological manifestations of the psychic life. Let us now
bear in mind this extraordinary capability of the memory in
the dream, in order to perceive vividly the contradictions which
must be advanced in certain dream theories to be mentioned
later, when they endeavour to explain the absurdities and
incoherence of dreams through a partial forgetting of what
we have known during the day.

One might even think of reducing the phenomenon of
dreaming to that of memory, and of regarding the dream as the
manifestation of an activity of reproduction which does not
rest even at night, and which is an end in itself. Views like
those expressed by Pilcz 51 would corroborate this, according
to which intimate relations are demonstrable between the time
of dreaming and the contents of the dream from the fact
that the impressions reproduced by the dream in sound sleep
belong to the remotest past while those reproduced towards
morning are of recent origin. But such a conception is rendered

16 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

improbable from the outset by the manner of the dream's
behaviour towards the material to be remembered. Strümpell 66
justly calls our attention to the fact that repetitions of ex-
periences do not occur in the dream. To be sure the dream
makes an effort in that direction, but the next link is wanting,
or appears in changed form, or it is replaced by something
entirely novel. The dream shows only fragments of repro-
duction ; this is so often the rule that it admits of theoretical
application. Still there are exceptions in which the dream
repeats an episode as thoroughly as our memory would in its
waking state. Delbceuf tells of one of his university colleagues
who in his dream repeated, with all its details, a dangerous
wagon ride in which he escaped accident as if by miracle.
Miss Calkins 12 mentions two dreams, the contents of which
exactly reproduced incidents from the day before, and I
shall later take occasion to report an example which came to
my notice, showing a childish experience which returned un-
changed in a dream.*

(c) Dream Stimuli and Dream Sources. — What is meant
by dream stimuli and dream sources may be explained by
referring to the popular saying, " Dreams come from the
stomach." This notion conceals a theory which conceives
the dream as a result of a disturbance of sleep. We should
not have dreamed if some disturbing element had not arisen
in sleep, and the dream is the reaction from this disturbance.

The discussion of the exciting causes of dreams takes up
the most space in the descriptions of the authors. That this
problem could appear only after the dream had become an
object of biological investigation is self-evident. The ancients
who conceived the dream as a divine inspiration had no need
of looking for its exciting source ; to them the dream resulted
from the will of the divine or demoniacal powers, and its
content was the product of their knowledge or intention.
Science, however, soon raised the question whether the stimulus
to the dream is always the same, or whether it might be
manifold, and thus led to the question whether the causal

* From subsequent experience I am able to state that it is not at all rare
to find in dreams repetitions of harmless or unimportant occupations of the
waking state, such as packing trunks, preparing food, work in the kitchen, &c,
but in such dreams the dreamer himself emphasizes not the character but the
reality of the memory, " I have really done all this in the day time."

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 17

explanation of the dream belongs to psychology or rather to
physiology. Most authors seem to assume that the causes of the
disturbance of sleep, and hence the sources of the dream, might be
of various natures, and that physical as well as mental irritations
might assume the role of dream inciters. Opinions differ greatly
in preferring this or that one of the dream sources, in ranking
them, and indeed as to their importance for the origin of dreams.
Wherever the enumeration of dream sources is complete
we ultimately find four forms, which are also utilised for the
division of dreams : —

I. External (objective) sensory stimuli.
II. Internal (subjective) sensory stimuli.

III. Internal (organic) physical excitations.

IV. Purely psychical exciting sources.

I. The External Sensory Stimuli. — The younger Strümpell,
son of the philosopher whose writings on the subject have
already more than once served us as a guide in the problem
of dreams, has, as is well known, reported his observations on
a patient who was afflicted with general anaesthesia of the
skin and with paralysis of several of the higher sensory organs.
This man merged into sleep when his few remaining sensory
paths from the outer world were shut off. When we wish to
sleep we are wont to strive for a situation resembling the
one in StrümpelTs experiment. We close the most important
sensory paths, the eyes, and we endeavour to keep away from
the other senses every stimulus and every change of the
stimuli acting upon them. We then fall asleep, although we
are never perfectly successful in our preparations. We can
neither keep the stimuli away from the sensory organs
altogether, nor can we fully extinguish the irritability of the
sensory organs. That we may at any time be awakened by
stronger stimuli should prove to us " that the mind has re-
mained in constant communication with the material world
even during sleep." The sensory stimuli which reach us during
sleep may easily become the source of dreams.

There are a great many stimuli of such nature, ranging
from those that are unavoidable, being brought on by the
sleeping state or at least occasionally induced by it, to the
accidental waking stimuli which are adapted or calculated
to put an end to sleep. Thus a strong light may force itself

B

18 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

into the eyes, a noise may become perceptible, or some odori-
ferous matter may irritate the mucous membrane of the nose.
In the spontaneous movements of sleep we may lay bare parts
of the body and thus expose them to a sensation of cold, or
through change of position we may produce sensations of
pressure and touch. A fly may bite us, or a slight accident at
night may simultaneously attack more than one sense. Ob-
servers have called attention to a whole series of dreams in
which the stimulus verified on waking, and a part of the
dream content corresponded to such a degree that the stimulus
could be recognised as the source of the dream.

I shall here cite a number of such dreams collected by
Jessen 36 (p. 527), traceable to more or less accidental objective
sensory stimuli. " Every indistinctly perceived noise gives
rise to corresponding dream pictures ; the rolling of thunder
takes us into the thick of battle, the crowing of a cock may be
transformed into human shrieks of terror, and the creaking of a
door may conjure up dreams of burglars breaking into the
house. When one of our blankets slips off at night we may
dream that we are walking about naked or falling into the
water. If we lie diagonally across the bed with our feet
extending beyond the edge, we may dream of standing on
the brink of a terrifying precipice, or of falling from a steep
height. Should our head accidentally get under the pillow
we may then imagine a big rock hanging over us and about to
crush us under its weight. Accumulation of semen produces
voluptuous dreams, and local pain the idea of suffering ill
treatment, of hostile attacks, or of accidental bodily injuries."

" Meier (Versuch einer Erklärung des Nachtwandeins, Halle,
1758, p. 33), once dreamed of being assaulted by several
persons who threw him flat on the ground and drove a stake
into the ground between his big and second toes. While
imagining this in his dream he suddenly awoke and felt a blade
of straw sticking between his toes. The same author, accord-
ing to Hemmings (Von den Traumen und Nachtwandeln,
Weimar, 1784, p. 258) dreamed on another occasion that he
was being hanged when his shirt was pinned somewhat tight
around his neck. Hauffbauer dreamed in his youth of having
fallen from a high wall and found upon waking that the bed-
stead had come apart, and that he had actually fallen to the

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 19

floor. . . . Gregory relates that he once applied a hot-water
bottle to his feet, and dreamed of taking a trip to the summit
of Mount Mtna, where he found the heat on the ground almost
unbearable. After having applied a blistering plaster to his
head, a second man dreamed of being scalped by Indians ; a
third, whose shirt was damp, dreamed of being dragged through
a stream. An attack of gout caused the patient to believe
that he was in the hands of the Inquisition, and suffering pains
of torture (Macnish)."

The argument based upon the resemblance between
stimulus and dream content is reinforced if through a sys-
tematic induction of stimuli we succeed in producing dreams
corresponding to the stimuli. According -to Macnish such
experiments have already been made by Giron de Buzareingues.
" He left his knee exposed and dreamed of travelling in a
mail coach at night. He remarked in this connection that
travellers would well know how cold the knees become in a
coach at night. Another time he left the back of his head
uncovered, and dreamed of taking part in a religious ceremony
in the open air. In the country where he lived it was customary
to keep the head always covered except on such occasions."

Maury 48 reports new observations on dreams produced in
himself. (A number of other attempts produced no results.)

1. He was tickled with a feather on his lips and on the tip
of his nose. He dreamed of awful torture, viz. that a mask
of pitch was stuck to his face and then forcibly torn off,
taking the skin with it.

2. Scissors were sharpened on pincers. He heard bells
ringing, then sounds of alarm which took him back to the
June days of 1848.

3. Cologne water was put on his nose. He found himself
in Cairo in the shop of John Maria Farina. This was followed
by mad adventures which he was unable to reproduce.

4. His neck was lightly pinched. He dreamed that a
blistering plaster was put on him, and thought of a doctor
who treated him in his childhood.

5. A hot iron was brought near his face. He dreamed
that chauffeurs * broke into the house and forced the occupants

* Cliauffeurs were bands of robbers in the Vendee who resorted to this
form of torture.

20 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

to give up their money by sticking their feet into burning
coals. The Duchess of Abrantes, whose secretary he imagined
himself in the dream, then entered.

6. A drop of water was let fall on his forehead. He
imagined himself in Italy perspiring heavily and drinking
white wine of Orvieto.

7. When a burning candle was repeatedly focussed on him
through red paper, he dreamed of the weather, of heat, and of a
storm at sea which he once experienced in the English Channel.

D'Hervey,34 Weygandt,75 and others have made other
attempts to produce dreams experimentally.

Many have observed the striking skill of the dream in
interweaving into its structure sudden impressions from the
outer world in such a manner as to present a gradually pre-
pared and initiated catastrophe (Hildebrandt) 35. " In
former years," this author relates, " I occasionally made use
of an alarm clock in order to wake regularly at a certain
hour in the morning. It probably happened hundreds of
times that the sound of this instrument fitted into an ap-
parently very long and connected dream, as if the entire
dream had been especially designed for it, as if it found in
this sound its appropriate and logically indispensable point,
its inevitable issue."

I shall cite three of these alarm-clock dreams for another
purpose.

Volkelt (p. 68) relates : " A composer once dreamed that
he was teaching school, and was just explaining something to
his pupils. He had almost finished when he turned to one
of the boys with the question : ' Did you understand me ? '
The boy cried out like one possessed ' Ya.' Annoyed at this,
he reprimanded him for shouting. But now the entire class
was screaming ' Orya,' then ' Euryo,' and finally ' Feueryo.'
He was now aroused by an actual alarm of fire in the street."

Gamier (Traitd des Facultas de VAme, 1865), reported by
Radestock,54 relates that Napoleon I., while sleeping in a
carriage, was awakened from a dream by an explosion which
brought back to him the crossing of the Tagliamento and the
bombarding of the Austrians, so that he started up crying,
" We are undermined ! "

The following dream of Maury 48 has become celebrated.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 21

He was sick, and remained in bed ; his mother sat beside
him. He then dreamed of the reign of terror at the time of
the Revolution. He took part in terrible scenes of murder,
and finally he himself was summoned before the Tribunal.
There he saw Robespierre, Marat, Fouquier-Tinville, and all
the sorry heroes of that cruel epoch ; he had to give an account
of himself, and, after all sort of incidents which did not fix
themselves in his memory, he was sentenced to death. Accom-
panied by an enormous crowd, he was led to the place of
execution. He mounted the scaffold, the executioner tied him
to the board, it tipped, and the knife of the guillotine fell. He
felt his head severed from the trunk, and awakened in terrible
anxiety, only to find that the top piece of the bed had fallen
down, and had actually struck his cervical vertebra in the
same manner as the knife of a guillotine.

This dream gave rise to an interesting discussion introduced
by Le Lorrain 45 and Egger 20 in the Revue Philosophique.
The question was whether, and how, it was possible for the
dreamer to crowd together an amount of dream content
apparently so large in the short space of time elapsing between
the perception of the waking stimulus and the awakening.

Examples of this nature make it appear that the objective
stimuli during sleep are the most firmly established of all
the dream sources ; indeed, it is the only stimulus which plays
any part in the layman's knowledge. If we ask an educated
person, who is, however, unacquainted with the literature of
dreams, how dreams originate, he is sure to answer by referring
to a case familiar to him in which a dream has been explained
after waking by a recognised objective stimulus. Scientific
investigation cannot, however, stop here, but is incited to
further research by the observation that the stimulus in-
fluencing the senses during sleep does not appear in the dream
at all in its true form, but is replaced by some other presenta-
tion which is in some way related to it. But the relation
existing between the stimulus and the result of the dream is,
according to Maury,47 " une affmite quelconque mais qui n'est
pas unique et exclusive " (p. 72). If we read, e.g., three of
Hildebrandt's " Alarm Clock Dreams," we will then have to
inquire why the same stimulus evoked so many different
results, and why just these results and no others.

22 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

(P. 37). " I am taking a walk on a beautiful spring morning.
I saunter through the green fields to a neighbouring village,
where I see the natives going to church in great numbers,
wearing their holiday attire and carrying their hymn-books
under their arms. I remember that it is Sunday, and that
the morning service will soon begin. I decide to attend it,
but as I am somewhat overheated I also decide to cool off
in the cemetery surrounding the church. While reading the
various epitaphs, I hear the sexton ascend the tower and see the
small village bell in the cupola which is about to give signal for
the beginning of the devotions. For another short while it
hangs motionless, then it begins to swing, and suddenly its
notes resound so clearly and penetratingly that my sleep
comes to an end. But the sound of bells comes from the
alarm clock."

" A second combination. It is a clear day, the streets are
covered with deep snow. I have promised to take part in a
sleigh-ride, but have had to wait for some time before it was
announced that the sleigh is in front of my house. The
preparations for getting into the sleigh are now made. I put
on my furs and adjust my muff, and at last I am in my place.
But the departure is still delayed, until the reins give the
impatient horses the perceptible sign. They start, and the
sleigh bells, now forcibly shaken, begin their familiar janizary
music with a force that instantly tears the gossamer of my
dream. Again it is only the shrill sound of my alarm clock."

Still a third example. " I see the kitchen-maid walk along
the corridor to the dining-room with several dozen plates
piled up. The porcelain column in her arms seems to me to
be in danger of losing its equilibrium. ' Take care,' I ex-
claim, ' you will drop the whole pile.' The usual retort is
naturally not wanting — that she is used to such things. Mean-
while I continue to follow her with my worried glance, and
behold ! at the door-step the fragile dishes fall, tumble, and
roll across the floor in hundreds of pieces. But I soon notice
that the noise continuing endlessly is not really a rattling but
a true ringing, and with this ringing the dreamer now becomes
aware that the alarm clock has done its duty."

The question why the dreaming mind misjudges the nature
of the objective sensory stimulus has been answered by

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 23

Strümpell,66 and almost identically by Wundt,76 to the effect
that the reaction of the mind to the attacking stimuli in sleep
is determined by the formation of illusions. A sensory im-
pression is recognised by us and correctly interpreted, i.e. it
is classed with the memory group to which it belongs according
to all previous experience, if the impression is strong, clear,
and long enough, and if we have the necessary time at our
disposal for this reflection. If these conditions are not fulfilled,
we mistake the objects which give rise to the impression, and
on its basis we form an illusion. " If one takes a walk in an
open field and perceives indistinctly a distant object, it may
happen that he will at first take it for a horse." On closer
inspection the image of a cow resting may obtrude itself, and
the presentation may finally resolve itself with certainty into
a group of people sitting. The impressions which the mind
receives during sleep through outer stimuli are of a similar
indistinct nature ; they give rise to illusions because the
impression evokes a greater or lesser number of memory
pictures through which the impression receives its psychic
value. In which of the many spheres of memory to be taken
into consideration the corresponding pictures are aroused,
and which of the possible association connections thereby
come into force, this, even according to Strümpell, remains
indeterminable, and is left, as it were, to the caprice of the
psychic life.

We may here take our choice. We may admit that the
laws of the dream formation cannot really be traced any
further, and therefore refrain from asking whether or not the
interpretation of the illusion evoked by the sensory impression
depends upon still other conditions ; or we may suppose that
the objective sensory stimulus encroaching upon sleep plays
only a modest part as a dream source, and that other factors
determine the choice of the memory picture to be evoked.
Indeed, on carefully examining Maury's experimentally produced
dreams, which I have purposely reported in detaü, one is apt
to think that the experiment really explains the origin of only
one of the dream elements, and that the rest of the dream
content appears in fact too independent, too much determined
in detail, to be explained by the one demand, viz. that it must
agree with the element experimentally introduced. Indeed

24 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

one even begins to doubt the illusion theory, and the power of
the objective impression to form the dream, when one learns
that this impression at times experiences the most peculiar
and far-fetched interpretations during the sleeping state.
Thus B. M. Simon 63 tells of a dream in which he saw persons
of gigantic stature * seated at a table, and heard distinctly the
awful rattling produced by the impact of their jaws while
chewing. On waking he heard the clacking of the hoofs of a
horse galloping past his window. If the noise of the horse's
hoofs had recalled ideas from the memory sphere of " Gulliver's
Travels," the sojourn with the giants of Brobdingnag and the
virtuous horse-creatures — as I should perhaps interpret it
without any assistance on the author's part — should not the
choice of a memory sphere so uncommon for the stimulus have
some further illumination from other motives ?

II. Internal {Subjective) Sensory Stimuli. — Notwithstanding
all objections to the contrary, we must admit that the role of
the objective sensory stimuli as a producer of dreams has been
indisputably established, and if these stimuli seem perhaps
insufficient in their nature and frequency to explain all dream
pictures, we are then directed to look for other dream sources
acting in an analogous manner. I do not know where the
idea originated that along with the outer sensory stimuli the
inner (subjective) stimuli should also be considered, but as a
matter of fact this is done more or less fully in all the more
recent descriptions of the etiology of dreams. " An important
part is played in dream illusions," says Wundt 36 (p. 363),
" by those subjective sensations of seeing and hearing which
are familiar to us in the waking state as a luminous chaos in
the dark field of vision, ringing, buzzing, &c, of the ears, and
especially irritation of the retina. This explains the remark-
able tendency of the dream to delude the eyes with numbers of
similar or identical objects. Thus we see spread before our eyes
numberless birds, butterflies, fishes, coloured beads, flowers, &c.
Here the luminous dust in the dark field of vision has taken on
phantastic figures, and the many luminous points of which it
consists are embodied by the dream in as many single pictures,
which are looked upon as moving objects owing to the mobility

* Gigantic persons in a dream justify the assumption that it deals with
a scene from the dreamer's childhood.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 25

of the luminous chaos. This is also the root of the great
fondness of the dream for the most complex animal figures,
the multiplicity of forms readily following the form of the
subjective light pictures."

The subjective sensory stimuli as a source of the dream
have the obvious advantage that unlike the objective stimuli
they are independent of external accidents. They are, so to
speak, at the disposal of the explanation as often as it needs
them. They are, however, in so far inferior to the objective
sensory stimuli that the role of dream inciter, which observa-
tion and experiment have proven for the latter, can be verified
in their case only with difficulty or not at all. The main proof
for the dream-inciting power of subjective sensory excitements
is offered by the so-called hypnogogic hallucinations, which
have been described by John Müller as " phantastic visual
manifestations." They are those very vivid and changeable
pictures which occur regularly in many people during the
period of falling asleep, and which may remain for awhile even
after the eyes have been opened. Maury,48 who was consider-
ably troubled by them, subjected them to a thorough study,
and maintained that they are related to or rather identical
with dream pictures — this has already been asserted by John
Müller. Maury states that a certain psychic passivity is
necessary for their origin ; it requires a relaxation of the tension
of attention (p. 59). But in any ordinary disposition a hypno-
gogic hallucination may be produced by merging for a second
into such lethargy, after which one perhaps awakens until this
oft-repeated process terminates in sleep. According to Maury,
if one awakens shortly thereafter, it is often possible to demon-
strate the same pictures in the dream which one has perceived
as hypnogogic hallucinations before falling asleep (p. 134).
Thus it once happened to Maury with a group of pictures of
grotesque figures, with distorted features and strange head-
dresses, which obtruded themselves upon him with incredible
importunity during the period of falling asleep, and which
he recalled having dreamed upon awakening. On another
occasion, while suffering from hunger, because he kept himself
on a rather strict diet, he saw hypnogogically a plate and a
hand armed with a fork taking some food from the plate. In
his dream he f ound himself at a table abundantly supplied with

26 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

food, and heard the rattle made by the diners with their forks.
On still another occasion, after falling asleep with irritated
and painful eyes, he had the hypnogogic hallucination of
seeing microscopically small characters which he was forced
to decipher one by one with great exertion ; having been
awakened from his sleep an hour later, he recalled a dream
in which there was an open book with very small letters, which
he was obliged to read through with laborious effort.

Just as in the case of these pictures, auditory hallucinations
of words, names, &c, may also appear hypnogogically, and
then repeat themselves in the dream, like an overture announc-
ing the principal motive of the opera which is to follow.

A more recent observer of hypnogogic hallucinations,
G. Trumbull Ladd,40 takes the same path pursued by John
Müller and Maury. By dint of practice he succeeded in
acquiring the faculty of suddenly arousing himself, without
opening his eyes, two to five minutes after having gradually
fallen asleep, which gave him opportunity to compare the
sensations of the retina just vanishing with the dream pictures
remaining in his memory. He assures us that an intimate
relation between the two can always be recognised, in the
sense that the luminous dots and lines of the spontaneous light
of the retina produced, so to speak, the sketched outline or
scheme for the psychically perceived dream figures. A dream,
e.g., in which he saw in front of him clearly printed lines which
he read and studied, corresponded to an arrangement of the
luminous dots and lines in the retina in parallel lines, or, to
express it in his own words : " The clearly printed page,
which he was reading in the dream, resolved itself into an
object which appeared to his waking perception like part of an
actual printed sheet looked at through a little hole in a piece
of paper, from too great a distance to be made out distinctly."
Without in any way under-estimating the central part of the
phenomenon, Ladd believes that hardly any visual dream
occurs in our minds that is not based on material furnished
by this inner condition of stimulation in the retina. This is
particularly true of dreams occurring shortly after falling asleep
in a dark room, while dreams occurring in the morning near the
period of awakening receive their stimulation from the ob-
jective fight penetrating the eye from the lightened room.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 27

The shifting and endlessly variable character of the spon-
taneous luminous excitation of the retina corresponds exactly
to the fitful succession of pictures presented to us in our
dreams. If we attach any importance to Ladd's observations,
we cannot underrate the productiveness of this subjective
source of excitation for the dream ; for visual pictures ap-
parently form the principal constituent of our dreams. The
share furnished from the spheres of the other senses, beside
the sense of hearing, is more insignificant and inconstant.

III. Internal {Organic) Physical Excitation. — If we are dis-
posed to seek dream sources not outside, but inside, the
organism, we must remember that almost all our internal
organs, which in their healthy state hardly remind us of their
existence, may, in states of excitation — as we call them — or
in disease, become for us a source of the most painful sensa-
tions, which must be put on an equality with the external
excitants of the pain and sensory stimuli. It is on the strength
of very old experience that, e.g., Strümpell 66 declares that
" during sleep the mind becomes far more deeply and broadly
conscious of its connection with the body than in the waking
state, and it is compelled to receive and be influenced by
stimulating impressions originating in parts and changes of the
body of which it is unconscious in the waking state." Even
Aristotle x declares it quite possible that the dream should
draw our attention to incipient morbid conditions which we
have not noticed at all in the waking state (owing to the
exaggeration given by the dream to the impressions ; and
some medical authors, who were certainly far from believing
in any prophetic power of the dream, have admitted this
significance of the dream at least for the foretelling of disease.
(Compare M. Simon, p. 31, and many older authors.)

Even in our times there seems to be no lack of authenticated
examples of such diagnostic performances on the part of the
dream. Thus Tissie 68 cites from Artigues (Essai sur la Valeur
s6m6iologique des Reves), the history of a woman of forty-three
years, who, during several years of apparently perfect health,
was troubled with anxiety dreams, and in whom medical
examination later disclosed an incipient affection of the heart
to which she soon succumbed.

Serious disturbances of the internal organs apparently act

28 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

as inciters of dreams in a considerable number of persons.
Attention is quite generally called to the frequency of anxiety
dreams in the diseases of the heart and lungs ; indeed this
relation of the dream life is placed so conspicuously in the
foreground by many authors that I shall here content myself
with a mere reference to the literature. (Radestock,54 Spitta,64
Maury, M. Simon, Tissie.) Tissie even assumes that the
diseased organs impress upon the dream content their char-
acteristic features. The dreams of persons suffering from
diseases of the heart are generally very brief and terminate
in a terrified awakening ; the situation of death under terrible
circumstances almost always plays a part in their content.
Those suffering from diseases of the lungs dream of suffocation,
of being crowded, and of flight, and a great many of them are
subject to the well-known nightmare, which, by the way,
Boerner has succeeded in producing experimentally by lying
on the face and closing up the openings of the respiratory
organs. In digestive disturbances the dream contains ideas
from the sphere of enjoyment and disgust. Finally, the
influence of sexual excitement on the dream content is per-
ceptible enough in every one's experience, and lends the strongest
support to the entire theory of the dream excitation through
organic sensation.

Moreover, as we go through the literature of the dream,
it becomes quite obvious that some of the authors (Maury,48
Weygandt 75) have been led to the study of dream problems
by the influence of their own pathological state on the content
of their dreams.

The addition to dream sources from these undoubtedly
established facts is, however, not as important as one might
be led to suppose ; for the dream is a phenomenon which
occurs in healthy persons — perhaps in all persons, and every
night — and a pathological state of the organs is apparently
not one of its indispensable conditions. For us, however,
the question is not whence particular dreams originate, but
what may be the exciting source for the ordinary dreams of
normal persons.

But we need go only a step further to find a dream source
which is more prolific than any of those mentioned above,
which indeed promises to be inexhaustible in every case. If

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 29

it is established that the bodily organs become in sickness
an exciting source of dreams, and if we admit that the mind,
diverted during sleep from the outer world, can devote more
attention to the interior of the body, we may readily assume
that the organs need not necessarily become diseased in order
to permit stimuli, which in some way or other grow into
dream pictures, to reach the sleeping mind. What in the
waking state we broadly perceive as general sensation, distin-
guishable by its quality alone, to which, in the opinion of the
physicians, all the organic systems contribute their shares —
this general sensation at night attaining powerful efficiency
and becoming active with its individual components — would
naturally furnish the most powerful as well as the most common
source for the production of the dream presentations. It still
remains, however, to examine according to what rule the
organic sensations become transformed into dream presenta-
tions.

The theory of the origin of dreams just stated has been the
favourite with all medical authors. The obscurity which
conceals the essence of our being — the " moi splanchnique," as
Tissie terms it — from our knowledge and the obscurity of the
origin of the dream correspond too well not to be brought into
relation with each other. The train of thought which makes
organic sensation the inciter of the dream has besides another
attraction for the physician, inasmuch as it favours the etio-
logical union of the dream and mental diseases, which show so
many agreements in their manifestations, for alterations in
the organic sensations and excitations emanating from the
inner organs are both of wide significance in the origin of the
psychoses. It is therefore not surprising that the theory of
bodily sensation can be traced to more than one originator
who has propounded it independently.

A number of authors have been influenced by the train
of ideas developed by the philosopher Schopenhauer in 1851.
Our conception of the universe originates through the fact
that our intellect recasts the impressions coming to it from
without in the moulds of time, space, and causality. The
sensations from the interior of the organism, proceeding from
the sympathetic nervous system, exert in the day-time an
influence on our mood for the most part unconscious. At

30 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

night, however, when the overwhelming influence of the
day's impressions is no longer felt, the impressions pressing
upward from the interior are able to gain attention — just as
in the night we hear the rippling of the spring that was rendered
inaudible by the noise of the day. In what other way, then,
could the intellect react upon these stimuli than by performing
its characteristic function ? It will transform the stimuli
into figures, filling space and time, which move at the beginning
of causality ; and thus the dream originates. Scherner,58
and after him Volkelt,72 attempted to penetrate into closer
relations between physical sensations and dream pictures ;
but we shall reserve the discussion of these attempts for the
chapter on the theory of the dream.

In a study particularly logical in its development, the
psychiatrist Krauss 39 found the origin of the dream as well
as of deliria and delusions in the same element, viz. the
organically determined sensation. According to this author
there is hardly a place in the organism which might not become
the starting point of a dream or of a delusion. Now organically
determined sensations " may be divided into two classes :
(1) those of the total feeling (general sensations), (2) specific
sensations which are inherent in the principal systems of the
vegetative organism, which may be divided into five groups :
(a) the muscular, (&) the pneumatic, (c) the gastric, (d) the
sexual, (e) the peripheral sensations (p. 33 of the second article)."

The origin of the dream picture on the basis of the physical
sensations is conceived by Krauss as follows : The awakened
sensation evokes a presentation related to it in accordance
with some law of association, and combines with this, thus
forming an organic structure, towards which, however, con-
sciousness does not maintain its normal attitude. For it does
not bestow any attention on the sensation itself, but concerns
itself entirely with the accompanying presentation ; this is
likewise the reason why the state of affairs in question should
have been so long misunderstood (p. 11, &c). Krauss finds
for this process the specific term of " transubstantiation of the
feeling into dream pictures " (p. 24).

That the organic bodily sensations exert some influence on
the formation of the dream is nowadays almost universally
acknowledged, but the question as to the law underlying the

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 31

relation between the two is answered in various ways and
often in obscure terms. On the basis of the theory of bodily
excitation the special task of dream interpretation is to trace
back the content of a dream to the causative organic stimulus,
and if we do not recognise the rules of interpretation advanced
by Scherner,58 we frequently find ourselves confronted with
the awkward fact that the organic exciting source reveals
itself in the content of the dream only.

A certain agreement, however, is manifested in the inter-
pretation of the various forms of dreams which have been
designated as " typical " because they recur in so many persons
with almost the same contents. Among these are the well-
known dreams of falling from heights, of the falling out of
teeth, of flying, and of embarrassment because of being naked
or barely clad. This last dream is said to be caused simply
by the perception felt in sleep that one has thrown off the bed-
cover and is exposed. The dream of the falling out of teeth is
explained by " dental irritation," which does not, however, of
necessity imply a morbid state of excitation in the teeth.
According to Strümpell,66 the flying dream is the adequate
picture used by the mind to interpret the sum of excitation
emanating from the rising and sinking of the pulmonary lobes
after the cutaneous sensation of the thorax has been reduced
to insensibility. It is this latter circumstance that causes a
sensation related to the conception of flying. Falling from
a height in a dream is said to have its cause in the fact that
when unconsciousness of the sensation of cutaneous pressure
has set in, either an arm falls away from the body or a flexed
knee is suddenly stretched out, causing the feeling of cutaneous
pressure to return to consciousness, and the transition to
consciousness embodies itself psychically as a dream of falling.
(Strümpell, p. 118). The weakness of these plausible attempts
at explanation evidently lies in the fact that without any
further elucidation they allow this or that group of organic
sensations to disappear from psychic perception or to obtrude
themselves upon it until the constellation favourable for the
explanation has been established. I shall, however, later
have occasion to recur to typical dreams and to their origin.

From comparison of a series of similar dreams, M. Simon 63
endeavoured to formulate certain rules for the influence of the

32 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

organic sensations on the determination of the resulting dream.
He says (p. 34) : " If any organic apparatus, which during
sleep normally participates in the expression of an affect, for
any reason merges into the state of excitation to which it is
usually aroused by that affect, the dream thus produced will
contain presentations which fit the affect."

Another rule reads as follows (p. 35) : " If an organic
apparatus is in a state of activity, excitation, or disturbance
during sleep, the dream will bring ideas which are related to
the exercise of the organic function which is performed by
that apparatus."

Mourly Void 73 has undertaken to prove experimentally
the influence assumed by the theory of bodily sensation for a
single territory. He has made experiments in altering the
positions of the sleeper's limbs, and has compared the resulting
dream with his alterations. As a result he reports the following
theories : —

1. The position of a limb in a dream corresponds approxi-
mately to that of reality, i.e. we dream of a static condition of
the limb which corresponds to the real condition.

2. When one dreams of a moving limb it always happens
that one of the positions occurring in the execution of this
movement corresponds to the real position.

3. The position of one's own limb may be attributed in the
dream to another person.

4. One may dream further that the movement in question
is impeded.

5. The limb in any particular position may appear in the
dream as an animal or monster, in which case a certain analogy
between the two is established.

6. The position of a limb may incite in the dream ideas
which bear some relation or other to this limb. Thus, e.g.,
if we are employed with the fingers we dream of numerals.

Such results would lead me to conclude that even the
theory of bodily sensation cannot fully extinguish the apparent
freedom in the determination of the dream picture to be
awakened.*

* The first volume of this Norwegian author, containing a complete de-
scription of dreams, has recently appeared in German. See Index of
Literature, No. 74 a.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 33

IV. Psychic Exciting Sources. — In treating the relations of
the dream to the waking life and the origin of the dream
material, we learned that the earliest as well as the latest
investigators agreed that men dream of what they are doing
in the day-time, and of what they are interested in during the
waking state. This interest continuing from waking life into
sleep, besides being a psychic tie joining the dream to life, also
furnishes us a dream source not to be under-estimated, which,
taken with those stimuli which become interesting and active
during sleep, suffices to explain the origin of all dream pictures.
But we have also heard the opposite of the above assertion,
viz. that the dream takes the sleeper away from the interests
of the day, and that in most cases we do not dream of things
that have occupied our attention during the day until after
they have lost for the waking life the stimulus of actuality.
Hence in the analysis of the dream life we are reminded at
every step that it is inadmissible to frame general rules without
making provision for qualifications expressed by such terms
as "frequently," "as a rule," "in most cases," and without
preparing for the validity of the exceptions.

If the conscious interest, together with the inner and outer
sleep stimuli, sufficed to cover the etiology of the dreams, we
ought to be in a position to give a satisfactory account of the
origin of all the elements of a dream ; the riddle of the dream
sources would thus be solved, leaving only the task of separat-
ing the part played by the psychic and the somatic dream stimuli
in individual dreams. But as a matter of fact no such com-
plete solution of a dream has ever been accomplished in any
case, and, what is more, every one attempting such solution
has found that in most cases there have remained a great
many components of the dream, the source of which he was
unable to explain. The daily interest as a psychic source of
dreams is evidently not far-reaching enough to justify the
confident assertions to the effect that we all continue our
waking affairs in the dream.

Other psychic sources of dreams are unknown. Hence,
with the exception perhaps of the explanation of dreams given
by Scherner,58 which will be referred to later, all explanations
found in the literature show a large gap when we come to the
derivation of the material for the presentation pictures, which

c

34 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

is most characteristic for the dream. In this dilemma the
majority of authors have developed a tendency to depreciate
as much as possible the psychic factor in the excitations of
dreams which is so difficult to approach. To be sure, they
distinguish as a main division of dreams the nerve-exciting
and the association dreams, and assert that the latter has its
source exclusively in reproduction (Wundt,76 p. 365), but they
cannot yet dismiss the doubt whether " they do not appear
without being impelled by the psychical stimulus " (Volkelt,72
p. 127). The characteristic quality of the pure association
dream is also found wanting. To quote Volkelt (p. 118) : "In
the association dreams proper we can no longer speak of such
a firm nucleus. Here the loose grouping penetrates also into
the centre of the dream. The ideation which is already set
free from reason and intellect is here no longer held together
by the more important psychical and mental stimuli, but is
left to its own aimless shifting and complete confusion."
Wundt, too, attempts to depreciate the psychic factor in the
stimulation of dreams by declaring that the " phantasms of
the dream certainly are unjustly regarded as pure hallucina-
tions, and that probably most dream presentations are really
illusions, inasmuch as they emanate from slight sensory im-
pressions which are never extinguished during sleep " (p.
338, &c). Weygandt 75 agrees with this view, but generalises
it. He asserts that " the first source of all dream presentations
is a sensory stimulus to which reproductive associations are
then joined " (p. 17). Tissie 68 goes still further in repressing
the psychic exciting sources (p. 183) : " Les reves d'origine
absolument psychique n'existent pas " ; and elsewhere (p. 6),
" Les pensees de nos reves nous viennent de dehors ..."

Those authors who, like the influential philosopher Wundt,
adopt a middle course do not fail to remark that in most
dreams there is a co-operation of the somatic stimuli with
the psychic instigators of the dream, the latter being either
unknown or recognised as day interests.

We shall learn later that the riddle of the dream formation
can be solved by the disclosure of an unsuspected psychic
source of excitement. For the present we shall not be surprised
at the over-estimation of those stimuli for the formation of
the dream which do not originate from psychic life. It is

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 35

not merely because they alone can easily be found and even
confirmed by experiment, but the somatic conception of the
origin of dreams thoroughly corresponds to the mode of
thinking in vogue nowadays in psychiatry. Indeed, the
mastery of the brain over the organism is particularly em-
phasized ; but everything that might prove an independence
of the psychic life from the demonstrable organic changes, or a
spontaneity in its manifestations, is alarming to the psychiatrist
nowadays, as if an acknowledgment of the same were bound to
bring back the times of natural philosophy and the meta-
physical conception of the psychic essence. The distrust of
the psychiatrist has placed the psyche under a guardian, so
to speak, and now demands that none of its feelings shall
divulge any of its own faculties ; but this attitude shows slight
confidence in the stability of the causal concatenation which
extends between the material and the psychic. Even where
on investigation the psychic can be recognised as the primary
course of a phenomenon, a more profound penetration will
some day succeed in finding a continuation of the path to the
organic determination of the psychic. But where the psychic
must be taken as the terminus for our present knowledge, it
should not be denied on that account.

(d) Why the Dream is Forgotten after Awakening. — That the
dream " fades away " in the morning is proverbial. To be
sure, it is capable of recollection. For we know the dream
only by recalling it after awakening ; but very often we
believe that we remember it only incompletely, and that
during the night there was more of it ; we can observe how
the memory of a dream which has been still vivid in the
morning vanishes in the course of the day, leaving only a few
small fragments ; we often know that we have been dreaming,
but we do not know what ; and we are so well used to the
fact that the dream is liable to be forgotten that we do not
reject as absurd the possibility that one may have been
dreaming even when one knows nothing in the morning of
either the contents or the fact of dreaming. On the other hand,
it happens that dreams manifest an extraordinary retentive-
ness in the memory. I have had occasion to analyse with my
patients dreams which had occurred to them twenty-five
years or more previously, and I can remember a dream of my

36 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

own which is separated from the present day by at least thirty-
seven years, and yet has lost nothing of its freshness in my
memory. All this is very remarkable, and for the present
incomprehensible.

The forgetting of dreams is treated in the most detailed
manner by Strümpell.66 This forgetting is evidently a complex
phenomenon ; for Strümpell does not explain it by a single
reason, but by a considerable number of reasons.

In the first place, all those factors which produce forgetful-
ness in the waking state are also determinant for the forgetting
of dreams. When awake we are wont soon to forget a large
number of sensations and perceptions because they are too
feeble, and because they are connected with a slight amount
of emotional feeling. This is also the case with many dream
pictures ; they are forgotten because they are too weak, while
stronger pictures in proximity will be remembered. Moreover,
the factor of intensity in itself is not the only determinant
for the preservation of the dream pictures ; Strümpell, as well
as other authors (Calkins), admits that dream pictures are
often rapidly forgotten, although they are known to have been
vivid, whereas among those that are retained in memory
there are many that are very shadowy and hazy. Besides, in
the waking state one is wont to forget easily what happened
only once, and to note more easily things of repeated occurrence.
But most dream pictures are single experiences,* and this
peculiarity equally contributes towards the forgetting of all
dreams. Of greater significance is a third motive for forgetting.
In order that feelings, presentations, thoughts and the like,
should attain a certain degree of memory, it is important that
they should not remain isolated, but that they should enter
into connections and associations of a suitable kind. If the
words of a short verse are taken and mixed together, it will be
very difficult to remember them. " When well arranged in
suitable sequence one word will help another, and the whole
remains as sense easily and firmly in the memory for a long
time. Contradictions we usually retain with just as much
difficulty and rarity as things confused and disarranged."
Now dreams in most cases lack sense and order. Dream

* Periodically recurrent dreams have been observed repeatedly. Cf.
the collection of Chabaneix.11

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 37

compositions are by their very nature incapable of being
remembered, and they are forgotten because they usually
crumble together the very next moment. To be sure, these
conclusions are not in full accord with the observation of
Radestock 54 (p. 168), that we retain best just those dreams
which are most peculiar.

According to Strümpell, there are still other factors effective
in the forgetting of dreams which are derived from the relation
of the dream to the waking state. The forgetfulness of the
waking consciousness for dreams is evidently only the counter-
part of the fact already mentioned, that the dream (almost)
never takes over successive memories from the waking state,
but only certain details of these memories which it tears away
from the habitual psychic connections in which they are re-
called while we are awake. The dream composition, therefore,
has no place in the company of psychic successions which fill
the mind. It lacks all the aids of memory. " In this manner
the dream structure rises, as it were, from the soil of our
psychic life, and floats in psychic space like a cloud in the sky,
which the next breath of air soon dispels " (p. 87). This is
also aided by the fact that, upon awakening, the attention is
immediately seized by the inrushing sensory world, and only
very few dream pictures can withstand this power. They fade
away before the impressions of the new day like the glow of
the stars before the sunlight.

As a last factor favouring the forgetting of dreams, we may
mention the fact that most people generally take little interest
in their dreams. One who investigates dreams for a time,
and takes a special interest in them, usually dreams more
during that time than at any other ; that is, he remembers
his dreams more easily and more frequently.

Two other reasons for the forgetting of dreams added by
Bonatelli (given by Benini 3) to those of Strümpell have already
been included in the latter ; namely, (1) that the change of the
general feeling between the sleeping and waking states is un-
favourable to the mutual reproductions, and (2) that the
different arrangement of the presentation material in the
dream makes the dream untranslatable, so to speak, for the
waking consciousness.

It is the more remarkable, as Strümpell observes, that, in

38 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

spite of all these reasons for forgetting the dream, so many
dreams are retained in memory. The continued efforts of the
authors to formulate laws for the remembering of dreams
amounts to an admission that here too there is something
puzzling and unsolved. Certain peculiarities relating to the
memory of dreams have been particularly noticed of late, e.g.,
that a dream which is considered forgotten in the morning may
be recalled in the course of the day through a perception
which accidentally touches the forgotten content of the dream
(Radestock,54 Tissie 6S). The entire memory of the dream is
open to an objection calculated to depreciate its value very
markedly in critical eyes. One may doubt whether our
memory, which omits so much from the dream, does not falsify
what it retained.

Such doubts relating to the exactness of the reproduction
of the dream are expressed by Strümpell when he says : "It
therefore easily happens that the active consciousness in-
voluntarily inserts much in recollection of the dream ; one
imagines one has dreamt all sorts of things which the actual
dream did not contain."

Jessen 36 (p. 547) expresses himself very decidedly : " More-
over we must not lose sight of the fact, hitherto little heeded,
that in the investigation and interpretation of orderly and
logical dreams we almost always play with the truth when we
recall a dream to memory. Unconsciously and unwittingly
we fill up the gaps and supplement the dream pictures. Rarely,
and perhaps never, has a connected dream been as connected
as it appears to us in memory. Even the most truth-loving
person can hardly relate a dream without exaggerating and
embellishing it. The tendency of the human mind to conceive
everything in connection is so great that it unwittingly supplies
the deficiencies of connection if the dream is recalled somewhat
disconnectedly."

The observations of V. Eggers,20 though surely inde-
pendently conceived, sound almost like a translation of Jessen's
words : " . . . L'observation des reves a ses difficulty speciales
et le seul moyen d'evitcr toute erreur en pareille mati&re est de
conner au papier sans le moindre retard ce que Ton vient
d'eprouver et de remarquer ; sinon, l'oubli vient vite ou total
ou partiel ; l'oubli total est sans gravitö ; mais l'oubli partiel

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 39

est perfide ; car si Ton se met ensuite ä raconter ce que Ton
n'a pas oublie, on est expose ä completer par imagination les
fragments incoherents et disjoints fourni par la memoire . . . ;
on devient artiste ä son insu, et le recit, periodiquement repete
s'impose ä la creance de son auteur, qui, de bonne foi, le
presente comme mi fait authentique, düment etabli selon les
bonnes methodes ..."

Similarly Spitta,64 who seems to think that it is only in our
attempt to reproduce the dream that we put in order the
loosely associated dream elements : "To make connection out
of disconnection, that is, to add the process of logical con-
nection which is absent in the dream."

As we do not at present possess any other objective control
for the reliability of our memory, and as indeed such a control
is impossible in examining the dream which is our own ex-
perience, and for which our memory is the only source, it is a
question what value we may attach to our recollections of
dreams.

(e) The Psychological Peculiarities of Dreams. — In the
scientific investigation of the dream we start with the assump-
tion that the dream is an occurrence of our own psychic
activity ; nevertheless the finished dream appears to us as
something strange, the authorship of which we are so little
forced to recognise that we can just as easily say " a dream
appeared to me," as " I have dreamt," Whence this " psychic
strangeness " of the dream ? According to our discussion of
the sources of dreams we may suppose that it does not depend
on the material reaching the dream content ; because this is
for the most part common to the dream life and waking life.
One may ask whether in the dream it is not changes in the
psychic processes which call forth this impression, and may
so put to test a psychological characteristic of the dream.

No one has more strongly emphasized the essential difference
between dream and waking life, and utilised this difference for
more far-reaching conclusions, than G. Th. Fechner 25 in some
observations in his Elements of Psychophysic (p. 520, part 11).
He believes that " neither the simple depression of conscious
psychic life under the main threshold," nor the distraction of
attention from the influences of the outer world, suffices to
explain the peculiarities of the dream life as compared with

40 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the waking life. He rather believes that the scene of dreams
is laid elsewhere than in the waking presentation life. " If
the scene of the psychophysical activity were the same during
the sleeping and the waking states, the dream, in my opinion,
could only be a continuation of the waking ideation maintain-
ing itself at a lower degree of intensity, and must moreover
share with the latter its material and form. But the state of
affairs is quite different."

What Fechner really meant has never been made clear,
nor has anybody else, to my knowledge, followed further the
road, the clue to which he indicated in this remark. An
anatomical interpretation in the sense of physiological brain
localisations, or even in reference to histological sections of
the cerebral cortex, will surely have to be excluded. The
thought may, however, prove ingenious and fruitful if it can be
referred to a psychic apparatus which is constructed out of
many instances placed one behind another.

Other authors have been content to render prominent one
or another of the tangible psychological peculiarities of the
dream life, and perhaps to take these as a starting point for
more far-reaching attempts at explanation.

It has been justly remarked that one of the main pecu-
liarities of the dream life appears even in the state of falling
asleep, and is to be designated as the phenomenon inducing
sleep. According to Schleiermacher 61 (p. 351), the char-
acteristic part of the waking state is the fact that the psychic
activity occurs in ideas rather than in pictures. But the
dream thinks in pictures, and one may observe that with the
approach of sleep the voluntary activities become difficult
in the same measure as the involuntary appear, the latter
belonging wholly to the class of pictures. The inability for
such presentation work as we perceive to be intentionally
desired, and the appearance of pictures which is regularly
connected with this distraction, these are two qualities which
are constant in the dream, and which in its psychological
analysis we must recognise as essential characters of the dream
life. Concerning the pictures — the hypnogogic hallucinations
— we have discovered that even in their content they are
identical with the dream pictures.

The dream therefore thinks preponderately, but not

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 41

exclusively, in visual pictures. It also makes use of auditory
pictures, and to a lesser extent of the impressions of the other
senses. Much is also simply thought or imagined (probably
represented by remnants of word presentations), just as in
the waking state. But still what is characteristic for the
dream is only those elements of the content which act like
pictures, i.e. which resemble more the perceptions than
the memory presentations. Disregarding all the discussions
concerning the nature of hallucinations, familiar to every
psychiatrist, we can say, with all well-versed authors, that the
dream hallucinates, that is, replaces thoughts through hallucina-
tions. In this respect there is no difference between visual
and acoustic presentations ; it has been noticed that the
memory of a succession of sounds with which one falls asleep
becomes transformed while sinking into sleep into an hallucina-
tion of the same melody, so as to make room again on awaken-
ing, which may repeatedly alternate with falling into a slumber,
for the softer memory presentations which are differently
formed in quality.

The transformation of an idea into an hallucination is not
the only deviation of the dream from a waking thought which
perhaps corresponds to it. From these pictures the dream
forms a situation, it presents something in the present, it
dramatises an idea, as Spitta 64 (p. 145) puts it.* But the
characteristic of this side of the dream life becomes complete
only when it is remembered that while dreaming we do not
— as a rule ; the exceptions require a special explanation —
imagine that we are thinking, but that we are living through
an experience, i.e., we accept the hallucination with full
belief. The criticism that this has not been experienced but
only thought in a peculiar manner — dreamt — comes to us only
on awakening. This character distinguishes the genuine
sleeping dream from day dreaming, which is never confused
with reality.

The characteristics of the dream life thus far considered
have been summed up by Burdach 8 (p. 476) in the following
sentences : "As characteristic features of the dream we may

* Silberer has shown by nice examples how in the state of sleepiness even
abstract thoughts may be changed into illustrative plastic pictures which
express the same thing {Jahrbuch von Bleuler-Freud, vol. i. 1900).

42 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

add (a) that the subjective activity of our mind appears as
objective, inasmuch as our faculty of perception perceives the
products of phantasy as if they were sensory activities . . .
(b) sleep abrogates one's self-command, hence falling asleep
necessitates a certain amount of passivity. . . . The slumber
pictures are conditioned by the relaxation of one's self-
command."

It is a question now of attempting to explain the credulity
of the mind in reference to the dream hallucinations, which
can only appear after the suspension of a certain arbitrary
activity. Strümpell 66 asserts that the mind behaves in this
respect correctly, and in conformity with its mechanism.
The dream elements are by no means mere presentations, but
true and real experiences of the mind, similar to those that
appear in the waking state as a result of the senses (p. 34).
Whereas in the waking state the mind represents and thinks
in word pictures and language, in the dream it represents and
thinks in real tangible pictures (p. 35). Besides, the dream
manifests a consciousness of space by transferring the sensa-
tions and pictures, just as in the waking state, into an outer
space (p. 36). It must therefore be admitted that the mind
in the dream is in the same relation to its pictures and per-
ceptions as in the waking state (p. 43). If, however, it is
thereby led astray, this is due to the fact that it lacks in sleep
the criticism which alone can distinguish between the sensory
perceptions emanating from within or from without. It
cannot subject its pictures to the tests which alone can prove
their objective reality. It furthermore neglects to differentiate
between pictures that are arbitrarily interchanged and others
where there is no free choice. It errs because it cannot apply
to its content the law of causality (p. 58). In brief, its aliena-
tion from the outer world contains also the reason for its
belief in the subjective dream world.

Delbceuf 16 reaches the same conclusion through a some-
what different line of argument. We give to the dream
pictures the credence of reality because in sleep we have no
other impressions to compare them with, because we are
cut off from the outer world. But it is not perhaps because
we are unable to make tests in our sleep, that we believe in the
truth of our hallucinations. The dream may delude us with

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 43

all these tests, it may make us believe that we may touch the
rose that we see in the dream, and still we only dream. Ac-
cording to Delbceuf there is no valid criterion to show whether
something is a dream or a conscious reality, except — and that
only in practical generality — the fact of awakening. " I declare
delusional everything that is experienced between the period
of falling asleep and awakening, if I notice on awakening that
I lie in my bed undressed " (p. 84). "I have considered the
dream pictures real during sleep in consequence of the mental
habit, which cannot be put to sleep, of perceiving an outer
world with which I can contrast my ego." *

As the deviation from the outer world is taken as the stamp
for the most striking characteristics of the dream, it will be
worth while mentioning some ingenious observations of old
Burdach 8 which will throw light on the relation of the sleeping
mind to the outer world and at the same time serve to prevent
us from over-estimating the above deductions. " Sleep results
only under the condition," says Burdach, " that the mind is

* Haffher 32 made an attempt similar to Delboeuf 's to explain the dream
activity on the basis of an alteration which must result in an introduction
of an abnormal condition in the otherwise correct function of the intact
psychic apparatus, but he described this condition in somewhat different
words. He states that the first distinguishing mark of the dream is the
absence of time and space, i.e. the emancipation of the presentation from the
position in the order of time and space which is common to the individual.
Allied to this is the second fundamental character of the dream, the mis-
taking of the hallucinations, imaginations, and phantasy- combinations for
objective perceptions. The sum total of the higher psychic forces, especially
formation of ideas, judgment, and argumentation on the one hand, and the
free self-determination on the other hand, connect themselves with the
sensory phantasy pictures and at all times have them as a substratum.
These activities too, therefore, participate in the irregularity of the dream
presentation. We say they participate, for our faculties of judgment and
will power are in themselves in no way altered during sleep. In reference
to activity, we are just as keen and just as free as in the waking state. A
man cannot act contrary to the laws of thought, even in the dream, i.e. he
is unable to harmonise with that which represents itself as contrary to
him, &c. ; he can only desire in the dream that which he presents to himself
as good (sub ratione boni). But in this application of the laws of thinking
and willing the human mind is led astray in the dream through mistaking
one presentation for another. It thus happens that we form and commit in
the dream the greatest contradictions, while, on the other hand, we display
the keenest judgments and the most consequential chains of reasoning, and
can make the most virtuous and sacred resolutions. Lack of orientation is
the whole secret of the flight by which our phantasy moves in the dream,
and lack of critical reflection and mutual understanding with others is the
main source of the reckless extravagances of our judgments, hopes, and
wishes in the dream" (p. 18).

44 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

not excited by sensory stimuli . . . but it is not the lack of
sensory stimuli that conditions sleep, but rather a lack of
interest for the same ; some sensory impressions are even
necessary in so far as they serve to calm the mind ; thus the
miller can fall asleep only when he hears the rattling of his
mill, and he who finds it necessary to burn a light at night, as
a matter of precaution, cannot fall asleep in the dark " (p. 457).

" The psyche isolates itself during sleep from the outer
world, and withdraws from the periphery. . . . Nevertheless,
the connection is not entirely interrupted ; if one did not hear
and feel even during sleep, but only after awakening, he
would certainly never awake. The continuance of sensation
is even more plainly shown by the fact that we are not always
awakened by the mere sensory force of the impression, but by
the psychic relation of the same ; an indifferent word does not
arouse the sleeper, but if called by name he awakens . . . :
hence the psyche differentiates sensations during sleep. . . .
It is for this reason that we may be awakened by the lack of a
sensory stimulus if it relates to the presentation of an important
thing ; thus one awakens when the light is extinguished, and
the miller when the mill comes to a standstill ; that is, the
awakening is due to the cessation of a sensory activity, which
presupposes that it has been perceived, and that it has not
disturbed the mind, being indifferent or rather gratifying "
(p. 460, &c).

If we are willing to disregard these objections, which are
not to be taken lightly, we still must admit that the qualities
of the dream life thus far considered, which originate by
withdrawing from the outer world, cannot fully explain the
strangeness of the dream. For otherwise it would be possible
to change back the hallucinations of the dream into presenta-
tions and the situations of the dream into thoughts, and thus
to perform the task of dream interpretation. Now this is
what we do when we reproduce the dream from memory after
awakening, and whether we are fully or only partially success-
ful in this back translation the dream still retains its mysterious-
ness undiminished.

Furthermore all the authors assume unhesitatingly that
still other more far-reaching alterations take place in the
presentation material of waking life. One of them, Strümpell,66

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 45

expresses himself as follows (p. 17) : " With the cessation of
the objectively active outlook and of the normal consciousness,
the psyche loses the foundation in which were rooted the
feelings, desires, interests, and actions. Those psychic states,
feelings, interests, estimates which cling in the waking state
to the memory pictures also succumb to ... an obscure
pressure, in consequence of which their connection with the
pictures becomes severed ; the perception pictures of things,
persons, localities, events, and actions of the waking state
are singly very abundantly reproduced, but none of these
brings along its psychic value. The latter is removed from
them, and hence they float about in the mind dependent upon
their own resources. . . ."

This deprivation the picture surfers of its psychic value,
which again goes back to the derivation from the outer world,
is according to Strümpell mainly responsible for the impression
of strangeness with which the dream is confronted in our
memory.

We have heard that even falling asleep carries with it the
abandonment of one of the psychic activities — namely, the
voluntary conduct of the presentation course. Thus the
supposition, suggested also by other grounds, obtrudes itself,
that the sleeping state may extend its influence also over the
psychic functions. One or the other of these functions is
perhaps entirely suspended ; whether the remaining ones
continue to work undisturbed, whether they can furnish normal
work under the circumstances, is the next question. The
idea occurs to us that the peculiarities of the dream may be
explained through the inferior psychic activity during the
sleeping state, but now comes the impression made by the
dream upon our waking judgment which is contrary to such a
conception. The dream is disconnected, it unites without
hesitation the worst contradictions, it allows impossibilities,
it disregards our authoritative knowledge from the day, and
evinces ethical and moral dulness. He who would behave in
the waking state as the dream does in its situations would be
considered insane. He who in the waking state would speak
in such manner or report such things as occur in the dream
content, would impress us as confused and weak-minded.
Thus we believe that we are only rinding words for the fact

46- ;THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

when we place but little value on the psychic activity in the
dream, and especially when we declare that the higher in-
tellectual activities are suspended or at least much impaired in
the dream.

With unusual unanimity — the exceptions will be dealt with
elsewhere — the authors have pronounced their judgments on the
dream — such judgments as lead immediately to a definite
theory or explanation of the dream life. It is time that I
should supplement the risumd which I have just given with a
collection of the utterances of different authors — philosophers
and physicians — on the psychological character of the dream.

According to Lemoine,42 the incoherence of the dream
picture is the only essential character of the dream.

Maury 48 agrees with him ; he says (p. 163) : "II n'y a pas
des reves absolument raisonnables et qui ne contiennent quelque
incoherence, quelque anachronisme, quelque absurdite."

According to Hegel, quoted by Spitta,64 the dream lacks all
objective and comprehensible connection.

Dugas 19 says : " Le reve, c'est l'anarchie psychique,
affective et mentale, c'est le jeu des fonctions livrees ä elles-
memes et s'exercant sans contröle et sans but ; dans le rove
l'esprit est un automate spirituel."

" The relaxation, solution, and confusion of the presenta-
tion life which is held together through the logical force of the
central ego " is conceded even by Volkelt 72 (p. 14), according to
whose theory the psychic activity during sleep seems in no
way aimless.

The absurdity of the presentation connections appearing in
the dream can hardly be more strongly condemned than it was
by Cicero {De Divin. II.) : "Nihil tarn praepostere, tarn in-
condite, tarn monstruose cogitari potest, quod non possimus
somniare."

Fechner 52 says (p. 522) : " It is as if the psychological
activity were transferred from the brain of a reasonable being
into the brain of a fool."

Radestock 3fj (p. 145) says : " It seems indeed impossible
to recognise in this absurd action any firm law. Having with-
drawn itself from the strict police of the rational will guiding the
waking presentation life, and of the attention, the dream
whirls everything about kaleidoscopically in mad play."

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 47

Hildebrandt 35 (p. 45) says : " What wonderful jumps the
dreamer allows himself, e.g., in his chain of reasoning ! With
what unconcern he sees the most familiar laws of experience
turned upside down ! What ridiculous contradictions he can
tolerate in the orders of nature and society before things go
too far, as we say, and the overstraining of the nonsense
brings an awakening ! We often multiply quite unconcernedly :
three times three make twenty ; we are not at all surprised
when a dog recites poetry for us, when a dead person walks
to his grave, and when a rock swims on the water ; we go in
all earnestness by high command to the duchy of Bernburg or
the principality of Lichtenstein in order to observe the navy
of the country, or we allow ourselves to be recruited as a
volunteer by Charles XII. shortly before the battle of Poltawa."

Binz 4 (p. 33) points to a dream theory resulting from the
impressions. " Among ten dreams nine at least have an
absurd content. We unite in them persons or things which do
not bear the slightest relation to one another. In the next
moment, as in a kaleidoscope, the grouping changes, if possible
to one more nonsensical and irrational than before ; thus the
changing play of the imperfectly sleeping brain continues until
we awaken, and put our hand to our forehead and ask ourselves
whether we really still possess the faculty of rational imagina-
tion and thought."

Maury 48 (p. 50) finds for the relation of the dream picture
to the waking thoughts, a comparison most impressive for the
physician : "La production de ces images que chez l'homme
eveille fait le plus souvent naltre la volonte, correspond, pour
Fintelligence, ä ce que cont pour la motilite certains mouvements
que nous offrent la choree et les affections paralytiques. ..."
For the rest, he considers the dream " toute une serie de degra-
dation de la faculte pensant et raisonant " (p. 27).

It is hardly necessary to mention the utterances of the
authors which repeat Maury's assertion for the individual
higher psychic activities.

According to Strümpell,66 some logical mental operations
based on relations and connections disappear in the dream —
naturally also at points where the nonsense is not obvious
(p. 26). According to Spitta,64 (p. 148) the presentations in
the dream are entirely withdrawn from the laws of causality.

48 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Radestock 54 and others emphasize the weakness of judgment
and decision in the dream. According to Jodl 37 (p. 123), there
is no critique in the dream, and no correcting of a series of
perceptions through the content of the sum of consciousness.
The same author states that " all forms of conscious activity
occur in the dream, but they are imperfect, inhibited, and
isolated from one another." The contradictions manifested in
the dream towards our conscious knowledge are explained
by Strieker 77 78 (and many others), on the ground that facts
are forgotten in the dream and logical relations between pre-
sentations are lost (p. 98), &c, &c.

The authors who in general speak thus unfavourably about
the psychic capacities in the dream, nevertheless admit that
the dream retains a certain remnant of psychic activity.
Wundt,76 whose teaching has influenced so many other workers
in the dream problems, positively admits this. One might
inquire as to the kind and behaviour of the remnants of the
psychic life which manifest themselves in the dream. It is
now quite universally acknowledged that the reproductive
capacity, the memory in the dream, seems to have been least
affected ; indeed it may show a certain superiority over the
same function in the waking life (vid. supra, p. 10), although a
part of the absurdities of the dream are to be explained by
just this forgetfulness of the dream life. According to Spitta,64
it is the emotional life of the psyche that is not overtaken by
sleep and that then directs the dream. " By emotion
[" Gemiith "] we understand the constant comprehension of
the feelings as the inmost subjective essence of man " (p. 84).

Scholz 59 (p. 37) sees a psychic activity manifested in the
dream in the " allegorising interpretation " to which the
dream material is subjected. Siebeck 62 verifies also in the
dream the "supplementary interpretative activity" (p. 11)
which the mind exerts on all that is perceived and viewed.
The judgment of the apparently highest psychic function,
the consciousness, presents for the dream a special difficulty.
As we can know anything only through consciousness, there
can be no doubt as to its retention ; Spitta, however, believes
that only consciousness is retained in the dream, and not self-
consciousness. Delbceuf 16 confesses that he is unable to
conceive this differentiation.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 49

The laws of association which govern the connection of
ideas hold true also for the dream pictures ; indeed, their
domination evinces itself in a purer and stronger expression
in the dream than elsewhere. Strümpell 62 (p. 70) says : " The
dream follows either the laws of undisguised presentations as
it seems exclusively or organic stimuli along with such pre-
sentations, that is, without being influenced by reflection and
reason, aesthetic sense, and moral judgment." The authors
whose views I reproduce here conceive the formation of the
dream in about the following manner : The sum of sensation
stimuli affecting sleep from the various sources, discussed
elsewhere, at first awaken in the mind a sum of presentations
which represent themselves as hallucinations (according to
Wundt, it is more correct to say as illusions, because of their
origin from outer and inner stimuli). These unite with one
another according to the known laws of association, and,
following the same rules, in turn evoke a new series of pre-
sentations (pictures). This entire material is then elaborated
as well as possible by the still active remnant of the organising
and thinking mental faculties (cf. Wundt 76 and Weygandt 75).
But thus far no one has been successful in finding the motive
which would decide that the awakening of pictures which do
not originate objectively follow this or that law of association.

But it has been repeatedly observed that the associations
which connect the dream presentations with one another are
of a particular kind, and different from those found in the
waking mental activity. Thus Volkelt 72 says : "In the dream,
the ideas chase and hunt each other on the strength of acci-
dental similarities and barely perceptible connections. All
dreams are pervaded by such loose and free associations."
Maury 48 attaches great value to this characteristic of connec-
tion between presentations, which allows him to bring the
dream life in closer analogy to certain mental disturbances.
He recognises two main characters of the dSlire : " (1) une
action spontanee et comme automatique de Fesprit ; (2) une
association vicieuse et irreguliere des idees " (p. 126). Maury
gives us two excellent examples from his own dreams, in which
the mere similarity of sound forms the connection of the
dream presentations. He dreamed once that he undertook
a pilgrimage (pe'lerinage) to Jerusalem or Mecca. After many

D

50 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

adventures he was with the chemist Pelletier ; the latter after
some talk gave him a zinc shovel (pelle) which became his
long battle sword in the dream fragment which followed
(p. 137). On another occasion he walked in a dream on the
highway and read the kilometres on the milestones ; presently
he was with a spice merchant who had large scales with which
to weigh Maury ; the spice merchant then said to him : " You
are not in Paris ; but on the island Gilolo." This was followed
by many pictures, in which he saw the flower Lobelia, then
the General Lopez, of whose demise he had read shortly before.
He finally awoke while playing a game of lotto.

We are, however, quite prepared to hear that this de-
preciation of the psychic activities of the dream has not remained
without contradiction from the other side. To be sure, con-
tradiction seems difficult here. Nor is it of much significance
that one of the depredators of dream life, Spitta 64 (p. 118),
assures us that the same psychological laws which govern the
waking state rule the dream also, or that another (Dugas 19)
states : " Le reve n'est pas deraison ni meme irraison pure,"
as long as neither of them has made any effort to bring this
estimation into harmony with the psychic anarchy and dis-
solution of all functions in the dream described by them.
Upon others, however, the possibility seems to have dawned
that the madness of the dream is perhaps not without its
method — that it is perhaps only a sham, like that of the Danish
prince, to whose madness the intelligent judgment here cited
refers. These authors must have refrained from judging by
appearances, or the appearance which the dream showed to
them was quite different.

Without wishing to linger at its apparent absurdity,
Havelock Ellis 23 considers the dream as "an archaic world of
vast emotions and imperfect thoughts," the study of which
may make us acquainted with primitive stages of development
of the psychic life. A thinker like Delboeuf 16 asserts — to
be sure without adducing proof against the contradictory
material, and hence indeed unjustly : " Dans le sommeil, hormis
la perception, toutes les facultes de Fesprit, intelligence, imagina-
tion, memoire, volonte, moralite, restant intactes dans leur
essence ; seulement, elles s'appliquent a des objets imaginaires
et mobiles. Le songeur est un acteur qui joue ä volonte les

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 51

fous et les sages, les bourreaus et les victimes, les nains et les
geants, les demons et les anges " (p. 222). The Marquis of
Hervey, who is sharply controverted by Maury,48 and whose
work I could not obtain despite all effort, seems to combat
most energetically the under-estimation of the psychic capacity
in the dream. Maury speaks of him as follows (p. 19) : " M. le
Marquis d'Hervey prete ä l'intelligence, durant le sommeil
toute sa liberte d'action et d'attention et il ne semble faire
consister le sommeil que dans l'occlusion des sens, dans leur
fermeture au monde exterieur ; en sorte que l'homme qui dort
ne se distingue guere, selon sa maniere de voir, de l'homme qui
laisse vaguer sa pensee en se bouchant les sens ; toute la
difference qui separe alors la pensee ordinaire du celle du
dormeur c'est que, chez celui-ci, l'idee prend une forme visible,
objective et ressemble, a s'y meprendre, ä la sensation deter-
minee par les objets exterieurs ; le souvenir revet l'apparence
du fait present."

Maury adds, however ; " Qu'il y a une difference de plus
et capitale ä savoir que les facultes intellectuelles de l'homme
endormi n'offrent pas l'equilibre qu'elles gardent chez l'homme
reveille."

The scale of the estimation of the dream as a psychic
product has a great range in the literature ; it reaches from
the lowest under-estimation, the expression of which we have
come to know, through the idea of a value not yet revealed to
the over-estimation which places the dream far above the
capacities of the waking life. Hildebrandt,35 who, as we know,
sketches the psychological characteristics into three anti-
nomies, sums up in the third of these contradistinctions the
extreme points of this series as follows (p. 19) : " It is between
a climax, often an involution which raises itself to virtuosity,
and on the other hand a decided diminution and weakening of
the psychic life often leading below the human niveau."

" As for the first, who could not confirm from his own
experience that, in the creations and weavings of the genius
of the dream, there sometimes comes to fight a profundity
and sincerity of emotion, a tenderness of feeling, a clearness of
view, a fineness of observation, and a readiness of wit, all
which we should modestly have to deny that we possess as a
constant property during the waking life ? The dream has a

52 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

wonderful poetry, an excellent allegory, an incomparable
humour, and a charming irony. It views the world under the
guise of a peculiar idealisation, and often raises the effect of its
manifestations into the most ingenious understanding of the
essence lying at its basis. It represents for us earthly beauty
in true heavenly radiance, the sublime in the highest majesty,
the actually frightful in the most gruesome figure, and the
ridiculous in the indescribably drastic comical ; and at times
we are so full of one of these impressions after awakening that
we imagine that such a thing has never been offered to us by
the real world."

One may ask, is it really the same object that the de-
preciating remarks and these inspired praises are meant for ?
Have the latter overlooked the stupid dreams and the former
the thoughtful and ingenious dreams ? And if both kinds do
occur — that is, dreams that merit to be judged in this or that
manner — does it not seem idle to seek the psychological character
of the dream ? would it not suffice to state that everything is
possible in the dream, from the lowest depreciation of the
psychic life to a raising of the same which is unusual in the
waking state ? As convenient as this solution would be it has
this against it, that behind the efforts of all dream investigators,
it seems to be presupposed that there is such a definable
character of the dream, which is universally valid in its essen-
tial features and which must eliminate these contradictions.

It is unquestionable that the psychic capacities of the
dream have found quicker and warmer recognition in that
intellectual period which now lies behind us, when philosophy
rather than exact natural science ruled intelligent minds.
Utterances like those of Schubert, that the dream frees the
mind from the power of outer nature, that it liberates the soul
from the chains of the sensual, and similar opinions expressed
by the younger Fichte,* and others, who represent the dream
as a soaring up of the psychic life to a higher stage, hardly
seem conceivable to us to-day ; they are only repeated at
present by mystics and devotees. With the advance of the
scientific mode of thinking, a reaction took place in the estima-
tion of the dream. It is really the medical authors who are
most prone to underrate the psychic activity in the dream,
* Cf. Ilaffner32 and Spitta64.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 53

as being insignificant and invaluable, whereas, philosophers
and unprofessional observers — amateur psychologists — whose
contributions in this realm can surely not be overlooked, in
better agreement with the popular ideas, have mostly adhered
to the psychic value of the dream. He who is inclined to under-
rate the psychic capacity in the dream prefers, as a matter
of course, the somatic exciting sources in the etiology of the
dream ; he who leaves to the dreaming mind the greater part
of its capacities, naturally has no reason for not also admitting
independent stimuli for dreaming.

Among the superior activities which, even on sober com-
parison, one is tempted to ascribe to the dream life, memory
is the most striking ; we have fully discussed the frequent
experiences which prove this fact. Another superiority of
the dream life, frequently extolled by the old authors, viz.
that it can regard itself supreme in reference to distance of
time and space, can be readily recognised as an illusion.
This superiority, as observed by Hildebrandt,35 is only illusional ;
the dream takes as much heed of time and space as the waking
thought, and this because it is only a form of thinking. The
dream is supposed to enjoy still another advantage in reference
to time ; that is, it is independent in still another sense of the
passage of time. Dreams like the guillotine dream of Maury,48
reported above, seem to show that the dream can crowd
together more perception content in a very short space of time
than can be controlled by our psychic activity in the waking
mind. These conclusions have been controverted, however,
by many arguments ; the essays of Le Lorrain 45 and Egger 20
" Concerning the apparent duration of dreams " gave rise to a
long and interesting discussion which has probably not said
the last word upon this delicate and far-reaching question.

That the dream has the ability to take up the intellectual
work of the day and bring to a conclusion what has not been
settled during the day, that it can solve doubt and problems,
and that it may become the source of new inspiration in poets
and composers, seems to be indisputable, as is shown by many
reports and by the collection compiled by Chabaneix.11 But
even if there be no dispute as to the facts, nevertheless their
interpretation is open in principle to a great many doubts.

Finally the asserted divinatory power of the dream forms

54 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

an object of contention in which hard ^insurmountable reflec-
tion encounters obstinate and continued faith. It is indeed just
that we should refrain from denying all that is based on fact
in this subject, as there is a possibility that a number of such
cases may perhaps be explained on a natural psychological
basis.

(/) The Ethical Feelings in the Dream. — For reasons which
will be understood only after cognisance has been taken of my
own investigations of the dream, I have separated from the
psychology of the dream the partial problem whether and to
what extent the moral dispositions and feelings of the waking
life extend into the dreams. The same contradictions which
we were surprised to observe in the authors' descriptions of all
the other psychic capacities strike us again here. Some
affirm decidedly that the dream knows nothing of moral
obligations ; others as decidedly that the moral nature of man
remains even in his dream life.

A reference to our dream experience of every night seems
to raise the correctness of the first assertion beyond doubt.
Jessen 36 says (p. 553) : " Nor does one become better or more
virtuous in the dream ; on the contrary, it seems that con-
science is silent in the dream, inasmuch as one feels no com-
passion and can commit the worst crimes, such as theft,
murder, and assassination, with perfect indifference and
without subsequent remorse."

Radestock 54 (p. 146) says : " It is to be noticed that in the
dream the associations terminate and the ideas unite without
being influenced by reflection and reason, aesthetic taste, and
moral judgment ; the judgment is extremely weak, and ethical
indifference reigns supreme."

Volkelt 72 (p. 23) expresses himself as follows : " As every
one knows, the sexual relationship in the dream is especially
unbridled. Just as the dreamer himself is shameless in the
extreme, and wholly lacking moral feeling and judgment, so
also he sees others, even the most honoured persons, engaged
in actions which even in thought he would blush to associate
with them in his waking state."

Utterances like those of Schopenhauer, that in the dream
every person acts and talks in accordance with his character,
form the sharpest contrast to those mentioned above. R, P.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 55

Fischer * maintains that the subjective feelings and desires
or affects and passions manifest themselves in the wilfulness
of the dream life, and that the moral characteristics of a person
are mirrored in his dream.

Haffner 32 (p. 25) : " With rare exceptions ... a virtuous
person will be virtuous also in his dreams ; he will resist
temptation, and show no sympathy for hatred, envy, anger,
and all other vices ; while the sinful person will, as a rule, also
find in his dreams the pictures which he has before him while
awake."

Scholz 59 (p. 36) : " In the dream there is truth ; despite all
masking in pride or humility, we still recognise our own self.
. . . The honest man does not commit any dishonourable
offence even in the dream, or, if this does occur, he is terrified
over it as if over something foreign to his nature. The Roman
emperor who ordered one of his subjects to be executed because
he dreamed that he cut off the emperor's head, was not wrong
in justifying his action on the ground that he who has such
dreams must have similar thoughts while awake. About a
thing that can have no place in our mind we therefore say
significantly : ' I would never dream of such a thing.' '

Pfaff,f varying a familiar proverb, says : " Tell me for a
time your dreams, and I will tell you what you are within."

The short work of Hildebrandt,35 from which I have already
taken so many quotations, a contribution to the dream problem
as complete and as rich in thought as I found in the literature,
places the problem of morality in the dream as the central
point of its interest. For Hildebrandt, too, it is a strict rule
that the purer the life, the purer the dream ; the impurer the
former, the impurer the latter.

The moral nature of man remains even in the dream :
" But while we are not offended nor made suspicious by an
arithmetical error no matter how obvious, by a reversal of
science no matter how romantic, or by an anachronism no
matter how witty, we nevertheless do not lose sight of the
difference between good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and
vice. No matter how much of what follows us during the

* Grundzüge des Systems der Anthropologie. Erlangen, 1850 (quoted by
Spitta).

t Das Traumleben und seine Deutung, 1868 (cited by Spitta, p. 192).

56 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

day may vanish in our hours of sleep — Kant's categorical
imperative sticks to our heels as an inseparable companion
from whom we cannot rid ourselves even in slumber. . . .
This can be explained, however, only by the fact that the
fundamental in human nature, the moral essence, is too firmly
fixed to take part in the activity of the kaleidoscopic shaking up
to which phantasy, reason, memory, and other faculties of the
same rank succumb in the dream " (p. 45, &c).

In the further discussion of the subject we find remarkable
distortion and inconsequence in both groups of authors.
Strictly speaking, interest in immoral dreams would cease for
all those who assert that the moral personality of the person
crumbles away in the dream. They could just as calmly
reject the attempt to hold the dreamer responsible for his
dreams, and to draw inferences from the badness of his dreams
as to an evil strain in his nature, as they rejected the ap-
parently similar attempt to demonstrate the insignificance of
his intellectual life in the waking state from the absurdity of
his dreams. The others for whom " the categorical im-
perative " extends also into the dream, would have to accept
full responsibility for the immoral dreams ; it would only be
desirable for their own sake that their own objectionable
dreams should not lead them to abandon the otherwise firmly
held estimation of their own morality.

Still it seems that no one knows exactly about himself
how good or how bad he is, and that no one can deny the
recollection of his own immoral dreams. For besides the
opposition already mentioned in the criticism of the morality
of the dream, both groups of authors display an effort to
explain the origin of the immoral dream and a new opposition
is developed, depending on whether their origin is sought in
the functions of the psychic life or in the somatically deter-
mined injuries to this life. The urgent force of the facts then
permits the representatives of the responsibility, as well as
of the irresponsibility of the dream life, to agree in the re-
cognition of a special psychic source for the immorality of
dreams.

All those who allow the continuance of the morality in
the dream nevertheless guard against accepting full responsi-
bility for their dreams. Haflner 32 says (p. 24) : " We are not

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 57

responsible for dreams because the basis upon which alone our
life has truth and reality is removed from our thoughts. . . .
Hence there can be no dream wishing and dream acting, no
virtue or sin." Still the person is responsible for the sinful
dream in so far as he brings it about indirectly. Just as in
the waking state, it is his duty to cleanse his moral mind,
particularly so before retiring to sleep.

The analysis of this mixture of rejection and recognition
of responsibility for the moral content of the dream is followed
much further by Hildebrandt. After specifying that the
dramatic manner of representation in the dream, the crowding
together of the most complicated processes of deliberation in
the briefest period of time, and the depreciation and the
confusion of the presentation elements in the dream admitted
by him must be recognised as unfavourable to the immoral
aspect of dreams ; he nevertheless confesses that, yielding to
the most earnest reflection, he is inclined simply to deny all
responsibility for faults and dream sins.

(P. 49) : " If we wish to reject very decisively any unjust
accusation, especially one that has reference to our intentions
and convictions, we naturally make use of the expression : I
should never have dreamed of such a thing. By this we mean
to say, of course, that we consider the realm of the dream the
last and remotest place in which we are to be held responsible
for our thoughts, because there these thoughts are only loosely
and incoherently connected with our real being, so that we
should hardly still consider them as our own ; but as we feel
impelled expressly to deny the existence of such thoughts,
even in this realm, we thus at the same time indirectly admit
that our justification will not be complete if it does not reach
to that point. And I believe that, though unconsciously, we
here speak the language of truth."

(P. 52) : " No dream thought can be imagined whose first
motive has not already moved through the mind while awake
as some wish, desire, or impulse." Concerning this original
impulse we must say that the dream has not discovered it — ■
it has only imitated and extended it, it has only elaborated
a bit of historical material which it has found in us, into
dramatic form ; it enacts the words of the apostle : He who
hates his brother is a murderer. And whereas, after we

58 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

awaken and become conscious of our moral strength, we may
smile at the boldly executed structure of the depraved dream,
the original formative material, nevertheless, has no ridicu-
lous side. One feels responsible for the transgressions of the
dreamer, not for the whole sum, but still for a certain percentage.
" In this sense, which is difficult to impugn, we understand the
words of Christ : Out of the heart come evil thoughts — for
we can hardly help being convinced that every sin committed
in the dream brings with it at least a vague minimum of
guilt."

Hildebrandt thus finds the source of the immorality of
dreams in the germs and indications of evil impulses which
pass through our minds during the day as tempting thoughts,
and he sees fit to add these immoral elements to the moral
estimation of the personality. It is the same thoughts and
the same estimation of these thoughts, which, as we know,
have caused devout and holy men of all times to lament that
they are evil sinners.

There is certainly no reason to doubt the general occurrence
of these contrasting presentations — in most men and even also
in other than ethical spheres. The judgment of these at
times has not been very earnest. In Spitta 64 we find the follow-
ing relevant expression from A. Zeller (Article " Irre " in the
Allgemeinen Encyklopädie der Wissenchaften of Ersch and
Grüber, p. 144) : " The mind is rarely so happily organised
as to possess at all times power enough not to be disturbed,
not only by unessential but also by perfectly ridiculous ideas
running counter to the usual clear trend of thought ; indeed,
the greatest thinkers have had cause to complain of this dream-
like disturbing and painful rabble of ideas, as it destroys their
profoundest reflection and their most sacred and earnest
mental work."

A clearer fight is thrown on the psychological status of
this idea of contrast by another observation of Hildebrandt,
that the dream at times allows us to glance into the deep and
inmost recesses of our being, which are generally closed to us in
our waking state (p. 55). The same knowledge is revealed
by Kant in his Anthropology, when he states that the dream
exists in order to lay bare for us our hidden dispositions and to
reveal to us not what we are, but what we might have been if

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 59

we had a different education. Radestock 54 (p. 84) says that
the dream often only reveals to us what we do not wish to
admit to ourselves, and that we therefore unjustly condemn
it as a liar and deceiver. That the appearance of impulses
which are foreign to our consciousness is merely analogous
to the already familiar disposition which the dream makes of
other material of the presentation, which is either absent or
plays only an insignificant part in the waking state, has been
called to our attention by observations like those of Benini,3
who says : " Gerte nostre inclinazione che si credevano suffocate
a spente da un pezzo, si ridestano ; passioni vecchie e sepolte
rivivono ; cose e persone a cui non pensiamo mai, ci vengono
dinanzi " (p. 149). Volkelt 72 expresses himself in a similar
way : " Even presentations which have entered into our
consciousness almost unnoticed, and have never perhaps been
brought out from oblivion, often announce through the
dream their presence in the mind (p. 105). Finally, it is not
out of place to mention here that, according to Schleiermacher,61
the state of falling asleep is accompanied by the appearance
of undesirable presentations (pictures).

We may comprise under " undesirable presentations " this
entire material of presentations, the occurrence of which
excites our wonder in immoral as well as in absurd dreams.
The only important difference consists in the fact that our
undesirable presentations in the moral sphere exhibit an
opposition to our other feelings, whereas the others simply
appear strange to us. Nothing has been done so far to enable
us to remove this difference through a more penetrating
knowledge.

But what is the significance of the appearance of un-
desirable presentations in the dream ? What inferences may
be drawn for the psychology of the waking and dreaming
mind from these nocturnal manifestations of contrasting
ethical impulses % We may here note a new diversity of
opinion, and once more a different grouping of the authors.
The stream of thought followed by Hildebrandt, and by
others who represent his fundamental view, cannot be con-
tinued in any other way than by ascribing to the immoral
impulses a certain force even in the waking state, which, to
be sure, is inhibited from advancing to action, and asserting

60 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that something falls off during sleep, which, having the effect
of an inhibition, has kept us from noticing the existence of
such an impulse. The dream thus shows the real, if not the
entire nature of man, and is a means of making the hidden
psychic life accessible to our understanding. It is only on
such assumption that Hildebrandt can attribute to the dream the
role of monitor who calls our attention to the moral ravages in
the soul, just as in the opinion of physicians it can announce a
hitherto unobserved physical ailment. Spitta,64 too, cannot be
guided by any other conception when he refers to the stream of
excitement which, e.g., flows in upon the psyche during puberty,
and consoles the dreamer by saying that he has done every-
thing in his power when he has led a strictly virtuous life
during his waking state, when he has made an effort to suppress
the sinful thoughts as often as they arise, and has kept them
from maturing and becoming actions. According to this con-
ception, we might designate the " undesirable " presentations
as those that are " suppressed " during the day, and must
recognise in their appearance a real psychic phenomenon.

If we followed other authors we would have no right to the
last inference. For Jessen 36 the undesirable presentations in
the dream as in the waking state, in fever and other deliria,
merely have " the character of a voluntary activity put to
rest and a somewhat mechanical process of pictures and
presentations produced by inner impulses " (p. 360). An
immoral dream proves nothing for the psychic life of the dreamer
except that he has in some way become cognizant of the ideas
in question ; it is surely not a psychic impulse of his own.
Another author, Maury,48 makes us question whether he, too,
does not attribute to the dream state the capacity for dividing
the psychic activity into its components instead of destroying
it aimlessly. He speaks as follows about dreams in which one
goes beyond the bounds of morality : " Ce sont nos penchants
qui parlent et qui nous font agir, sans que la conscience nous
retienne, bien que parfoit eile nous avertisse. J'ai mes defauts
et mes penchants vicieux ; a l'etat de veille, je tache de lutter
contre eux, et il m'arrive assez souvent de n'y pas succomber.
Mais dans mes songes j'y succombe tou jours ou pour mieux
dire j'agis, par leur impulsion, sans crainte et sans remords. . . .
Evidement les visions qui se deroulent devant ma pcnsee et

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 61

qui constituent le reve, me sont suggerees par les incitations
que je ressens et que ma volonte absente ne cherche pas ä
ref order" (p. 113).

If one believes in the capacity of the dream to reveal
an actually existing but repressed or concealed immoral dis-
position of the dreamer, he could not emphasize his opinion
more strongly than with the words of Maury (p. 115) : " En
reve l'homme se revele done tout entier ä soi-meme dans sa
nudite et sa misere natives. Des qu'il suspend l'exercice de sa
volonte, il devient le jouet de toutes les passions contre les-
quelles, ä l'etat de veille, la conscience, le sentiment d'honneur,
la crainte nous dependent." In another place he finds the
following striking words (p. 462) : " Dans le reve, e'est surtout
l'homme instinctif que se revele. . . . L'homme revient pour
ainsi dire a l'etat de nature quand il reve ; mais moins les idees
acquises ont penetre dans son esprit, plus les penchants en
disaccord avec elles conservent encore sur lui d'innuence
dans le reve." He then mentions as an example that his
dreams often show him as a victim of just those superstitions
which he most violently combats in his writing.

The value of all these ingenious observations for a psycho-
logical knowledge of the dream life, however, is marred by
Maury through the fact that he refuses to recognise in the
phenomena so correctly observed by him any proof of the
" automatisme psychologique " which in his opinion dominates
the dream life. He conceives this automatism as a perfect
contrast to the psychic activity.

A passage in the studies on consciousness by Strieker 77
reads : " The dream does not consist of delusions merely ; if,
e.g., one is afraid of robbers in the dream, the robbers are, of
course, imaginary, but the fear is real. One's attention is
thus called to the fact that the effective development in the
dream does not admit of the judgment which one bestows upon
the rest of the dream content, and the problem arises what
part of the psychic processes in the dream may be real, i.e.
what part of them may demand to be enrolled among the
psychic processes of the waking state ? "

(g) Dream Theories and Functions of the Dream. — A statement
concerning the dream which as far as possible attempts to
explain from one point of view many of its noted characters, and

62 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

which at the same time determines the relation of the dream to
a more comprehensive sphere of manifestations, may be called
a theory of dreams. Individual theories of the dream will be
distinguished from one another through the fact that they
raise to prominence this or that characteristic of the dream,
and connect explanations and relations with it. It will not
be absolutely necessary to derive from the theory a function,
i.e. a use or any such activity of the dream, but our expecta-
tion, which is usually adjusted to teleology, will nevertheless
welcome those theories which promise an understanding of
the function of the dream.

We have already become acquainted with many concep-
tions of the dream which, more or less, merit the name of dream
theories in this sense. The belief of the ancients that the
dream was sent by the gods in order to guide the actions of
man was a complete theory of the dream giving information
concerning everything in the dream worth knowing. Since
the dream has become an object of biological investigation we
have a greater number of theories, of which, however, some
are very incomplete.

If we waive completeness, we may attempt the following
loose grouping of dream theories based on their fundamental
conception of the degree and mode of the psychic activity in
the dream : —

1. Theories, like those of Delboeuf,16 which allow the full
psychic activity of the waking state to continue into the
dream. Here the mind does not sleep ; its apparatus remains
intact, and, being placed under the conditions different from
the waking state, it must in normal activity furnish results
different from those of the waking state. In these theories
it is a question whether they are in position to derive the
distinctions between dreaming and waking thought altogether
from the determinations of the sleeping state. They moreover
lack a possible access to a function of the dream ; one cannot
understand why one dreams, why the complicated mechanism
of the psychic apparatus continues to play even when it is
placed under conditions for which it is not apparently adapted.
There remain only two expedient reactions — to sleep dream-
lessly or to awake when approached by disturbing stimuli —
instead of the third, that of dreaming.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM GS

2. Theories which, on the contrary, assume for the dream
a diminution for the psychic activity, a loosening of the con-
nections, and an impoverishment in available material. In
accordance with these theories, one must assume for sleep a
psychological character entirely different from the one given
by Delbceuf. Sleep extends far beyond the mind — it does
not consist merely in a shutting off of the mind from the outer
world ; on the contrary, it penetrates into its mechanism, causing
it at times to become useless. If I may draw a comparison
from psychiatrical material, I may say that the first theories
construct the dream like a paranoia, while the second make
it after the model of a dementia or an amentia.

The theory that only a fragment of the psychic activity
paralysed by sleep comes to expression is by far the favourite
among the medical writers and in the scientific world. As
far as one may presuppose a more general interest in dream
interpretation, it may well be designated as the ruling theory
of the dream. It is to be emphasized with what facility this
particular theory escapes the worst rock threatening every
dream interpretation, that is to say, being shipwrecked upon
one of the contrasts embodied in the dream. As this theory
considers the dream the result of a partial waking (or as
Herbart's Psychology of the dream says, " a gradual, partial,
and at the same time very anomalous waking "), it succeeds in
covering the entire series of inferior activities in the dream
which reveal themselves in its absurdities, up to the full con-
centration of mental activity, by following a series of states
which become more and more awake until they reach full
awakening.

One who finds the psychological mode of expression indis-
pensable, or who thinks more scientifically, will find this theory
of the dream expressed in the discussion of Binz 4 (p. 43) : —

" This state [of numbness], however, gradually approaches
its end in the early morning hours. The accumulated material
of fatigue in the albumen of the brain gradually becomes
less. It is gradually decomposed or carried away by the
constantly flowing circulation. Here and there some masses
of cells can be distinguished as awake, while all around
everything still remains in a state of torpidity. The isolated
work of the individual groups now appears before our clouded

64 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

consciousness, which lacks the control of other parts of the
brain governing the associations. Hence the pictures created,
which mostly correspond to the objective impressions of the
recent past, fit with each other in a wild and irregular manner.
The number of the brain cells set free becomes constantly-
greater, the irrationality of the dream constantly less."

The conception of the dream as an incomplete, partial
waking state, or traces of its influence, can surely be found
among all modern physiologists and philosophers. It is most
completely represented by Maury.48 It often seems as if this
author represented to himself the state of being awake or
asleep in anatomical regions ; at any rate it appears to him
that an anatomical province is connected with a definite
psychic function. I may here merely mention that if the
theory of partial waking could be confirmed, there would
remain much to be accomplished in its elaboration.

Naturally a function of the dream cannot be found in this
conception of the dream life. On the contrary, the criticism
of the status and importance of the dream is consistently
uttered in this statement of Binz (p. 357) : " All the facts, as
we see, urge us to characterise the dream as a physical process
in all cases useless, in many cases even morbid."

The expression " physical " in reference to the dream,
which owes its prominence to this author, points in more than
one direction. In the first place, it refers to the etiology of
the dream, which was especially clear to Binz, as he studied
the experimental production of dreams by the administration
of poisons. It is certainly in keeping with this kind of dream
theory to ascribe the incitement of the dream exclusively to
somatic origin whenever possible. Presented in the most
extreme form, it reads as follows : After we have put ourselves
to sleep by removing the stimuli, there would be no need and
no occasion for dreaming until morning, when the gradual
awakening through the incoming stimuli would be reflected in
the phenomenon of dreaming. But as a matter of fact, it is
not possible to keep sleep free from stimuli ; just as Mephisto
complains about the germs of life, so stimuli reach the sleeper
from every side — from without, from within, and even from
certain bodily regions which never give us any concern during
the waking state. Thus sleep is disturbed ; the mind is

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 65

aroused, now by this, now by that little thing, and functionates
for a while with the awakened part only to be glad to fall
asleep again. The dream is a reaction to the stimulus causing
a disturbance of sleep — to be sure, it is a purely superfluous
reaction.

To designate the dream as a physical process, which for
all that remains an activity of the mental organ, has still
another sense. It is meant to dispute the dignity of a psychic
process for the dream. The application to the dream of the
very old comparison of the " ten fingers of a musically ignorant
person running over the keyboard of an instrument," perhaps
best illustrates in what estimation the dream activity has been
held by the representatives of exact science. In this sense it
becomes something entirely untranslatable, for how could the
ten fingers of an unmusical player produce any music 1

The theory of partial wakefulness has not passed without
objection even in early times. Thus Burdach,8 in 1830, says :
" If we say that the dream is a partial wakefulness, in the
first place, we explain thereby neither the waking nor the
sleeping state ; secondly, this expresses nothing more than
that certain forces of the mind are active in the dream while
others are at rest. But such irregularities take place throughout
life . . ." (p. 483).

Among extant dream theories which consider the dream a
" physical " process, there is one very interesting conception
of the dream, first propounded by Robert 55 in 1866, which is
attractive because it assigns to the dream a function or a useful
end. As a basis for this theory, Robert takes from observa-
tion two facts which we have already discussed in our con-
sideration of the dream material (see p. 13). These facts are :
that one very often dreams about the insignificant impressions
of the day, and that one rarely carries over into the dream the
absorbing interests of the day. Robert asserts as exclusively
correct, that things which have been fully settled never become
dream inciters, but only such things as are incomplete in the
mind or touch it fleetingly (p. 11). "We cannot usually
explain our dreams because their causes are to be found in
sensory impressions of the preceding day which have not attained
sufficient recognition by the dreamer" The conditions allowing
an impression to reach the dream are therefore, either that

E

66 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

this impression has been disturbed in its elaboration, or that
being too insignificant it has no claim to such elaboration.

Robert therefore conceives the dream "as a physical
process of elimination which has reached to cognition in the
psychic manifestation of its reaction." Dreams are elimina-
tions of thoughts nipped in the bud. " A man deprived of the
capacity for dreaming would surely in time become mentally
unbalanced, because an immense number of unfinished and
unsolved thoughts and superficial impressions would accumu-
late in his brain, under the pressure of which there would be
crushed all that should be incorporated as a finished whole
into memory." The dream acts as a safety-valve for the over-
burdened brain. Dreams possess healing and unburdening
properties (p. 32).

It would be a mistake to ask Robert how representation in
the dream can bring about an unburdening of the mind. The
author apparently concluded from those two peculiarities of
the dream material that during sleep such ejection of worthless
impressions is effected as a somatic process, and that dreaming
is not a special psychic process but only the knowledge that
we receive of such elimination. To be sure an elimination is
not the only thing that takes place in the mind during sleep.
Robert himself adds that the incitements of the day are also
elaborated, and " what cannot be eliminated from the un-
digested thought material lying in the mind becomes con-
nected by threads of thought borrowed from the phantasy into a
finished whole, and thus enrolled in the memory as a harmless
phantasy picture " (p. 23).

But it is in his criticism of the dream sources that Robert
appears most bluntly opposed to the ruling theory. Whereas
according to the existing theory there would be no dream if
the outer and inner sensory stimuli did not repeatedly wake
the mind, according to Robert the impulse to dream lies in
the mind itself. It lies in the overcharging which demands
discharge, and Robert judges with perfect consistency when
he maintains that the causes determining the dream which
depend on the physical state assume a subordinate rank, and
could not incite dreams in a mind containing no material for
dream formation taken from waking consciousness. It is
admitted, however, that the phantasy pictures originating in

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 67

the depths of the mind can be influenced by the nervous
stimuli (p. 48). Thus, according to Robert, the dream is not
quite so dependent on the somatic element. To be sure, it is
not a psychic process, and has no place among the psychic
processes of the waking state ; it is a nocturnal somatic
process in the apparatus devoted to mental activity, and has
a function to perform, viz. to guard this apparatus against
overstraining, or, if the comparison may be changed, to cleanse
the mind.

Another author, Yves Delage,15 bases his theory on the
same characteristics of the dream, which become clear in the
selection of the dream material, and it is instructive to observe
how a slight turn in the conception of the same things gives
a final result of quite different bearing.

Delage, after having lost through death a person very dear
to him, found from his own experience that we do not dream
of what occupies us intently during the day, or that we begin
to dream of it only after it is overshadowed by other interests
of the day. His investigations among other persons corro-
borated the universality of this state of affairs. Delage
makes a nice observation of this kind, if it turn out to be
generally true, about the dreaming of newly married people :
" S'ils ont ete fortement epris, presque jamais ils n'ont reve
Fun de l'autre avant le mariage ou pendant la lune de miel ;
et s'ils ont reve d'amour c'est pour etre infideles avec quelque
personne indifferente ou odieuse." But what does one dream
of ? Delage recognises that the material occurring in our
dreams consists of fragments and remnants of impressions
from the days preceding and former times. All that appears
in our dreams, what at first we may be inclined to consider
creations of the dream life, proves on more thorough investiga-
tion to be unrecognised reproductions, " souvenir inconscient."
But this presentation material shows a common character ; it
originates from impressions which have probably affected
our senses more forcibly than our mind, or from which the
attention has been deflected soon after their appearance. The
less conscious, and at the same time the stronger the impression,
the more prospect it has of playing a part in the next dream.

These are essentially the same two categories of impressions,
the insignificant and the unadjusted, which were emphasized

68 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

by Robert,55 but Delage changes the connection by assuming
that these impressions become the subject of dreams, not
because they are indifferent, but because they are unadjusted.
The insignificant impressions, too, are in a way not fully ad-
justed ; they, too, are from their nature as new impressions
" autant de ressorts tendus," which will be relaxed during
sleep. Still more entitled to a role in the dream than the weak
and almost unnoticed impression is a strong impression which
has been accidentally detained in its elaboration or intentionally
repressed. The psychic energy accumulated during the day
through inhibition or suppression becomes the main-spring
of the dream at night.

Unfortunately Delage stops here in his train of thought ;
he can ascribe only the smallest part to an independent psychic
activity in the dream, and thus in his dream theory reverts to
the ruling doctrine of a partial sleep of the brain : " En somme
le reve est le produit de la pensee errante, sans but et sans
direction, se fixant successivement sur les souvenirs, qui ont
garde assez d'intensite pour se placer sur sa route et Farreter
au passage, etablissant entre eux un Hen tantot faible et
indecis, tantot plus fort et plus serre, selon que l'activite
actuelle du cerveau est plus ou moins abolie par le sommeil."

In a third group we may include those dream theories
which ascribe to the dreaming mind the capacity and pro-
pensity for a special psychic activity, which in the waking
state it can accomplish either not at all or only in an imperfect
manner. From the activity of these capacities there usually
results a useful function of the dream. The dignity bestowed
upon the dream by older psychological authors falls chiefly
in this category. I shall content myself, however, with quoting,
in their place, the assertions of Burdach,8 by virtue of which
the dream " is the natural activity of the mind, which is not
limited by the force of the individuality, not disturbed by self-
consciousness and not directed by self-determination, but is
the state of life of the sensible central point indulging in free
play " (p. 480).

Burdach and others apparently consider this revelling in
the free use of one's own powers as a state in which the mind
refreshes itself and takes on new strength for the day work,
something after the manner of a vacation holiday, Burdach,

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 69

therefore, cites with approval the admirable words in which
the poet Novalis lauds the sway of the dream : " The dream
is a bulwark against the regularity and commonness of life,
a free recreation of the fettered phantasy, in which it mixes
together all the pictures of life and interrupts the continued
earnestness of grown-up men with a joyous children's play.
Without the dream we should surely age earlier, and thus the
dream may be considered perhaps not a gift directly from
above, but a delightful task, a friendly companion, on our
pilgrimage to the grave."

The refreshing and curative activity of the dream is even
more impressively depicted by Purkinje.53 " The productive
dreams in particular would perform these functions. They
are easy plays of the imagination, which have no connection
with the events of the day. The mind does not wish to con-
tinue the tension of the waking life, but to release it and re-
cuperate from it. It produces, in the first place, conditions
opposed to those of the waking state. It cures sadness through
joy, worry through hope and cheerfully distracting pictures,
hatred through love and friendliness, and fear through courage
and confidence ; it calms doubt through conviction and firm
belief, and vain expectations through realisation. Many
sore spots in the mind, which the day keeps continually open,
sleep heals by covering them and guarding against fresh
excitement. Upon this the curative effect of time is partially
based." We all feel that sleep is beneficial to the psychic
life, and the vague surmise of the popular consciousness ap-
parently cannot be robbed of the notion that the dream is
one of the ways in which sleep distributes its benefits.

The most original and most far-reaching attempt to explain
the dream as a special activity of the mind, which can freely
display itself only in the sleeping state, was the one under-
taken by Schemer 58 in 1861. Schemer's book, written in a
heavy and bombastic style, inspired by an almost intoxicated
enthusiasm for the subject, which must repel us unless it can
carry us away with it, places so many difficulties in the way
of an analysis that we gladly resort to the clearer and shorter
description in which the philosopher Volkelt 72 presents
Schemer's theories : " From the mystic conglomerations and
from all the gorgeous and magnificent billows there indeed

70 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

flashes and irradiates an ominous light of sense, but the path
of the philosopher does not thereby become clearer." Such
is the criticism of Schemer's description from one of his own
adherents.

Schemer does not belong to those authors who allow the
mind to take along its undiminished capacities into the dream
life. He indeed explains how in the dream the centrality and
the spontaneous energy of the ego are enervated, how cogni-
tion, feeling, will, and imagination become changed through
this decentralisation, and how no true mental character, but
only the nature of a mechanism, belongs to the remnants of
these psychic forces. But instead, the activity of the mind
designated as phantasy, freed from all rational domination
and hence completely uncontrolled, rises in the dream to
absolute supremacy. To be sure, it takes the last building
stones from the memory of the waking state, but it builds with
them constructions as different from the structures of the
waking state as day and night. It shows itself in the dream
not only reproductive, but productive. Its peculiarities give
to the dream life its strange character. It shows a preference
for the unlimited, exaggerated, and prodigious, but because
freed from the impeding thought categories, it gains a greater
flexibility and agility and new pleasure ; it is extremely
sensitive to the delicate emotional stimuli of the mind and to
the agitating affects, and it rapidly recasts the inner life into
the outer plastic clearness. The dream phantasy lacks the
language of ideas ; what it wishes to say, it must clearly depict ;
and as the idea now acts strongly, it depicts it with the richness,
force, and immensity of the mode in question. Its language,
however simple it may be, thus becomes circumstantial,
cumbersome, and heavy. Clearness of language is rendered
especially difficult by the fact that it shows a dislike for ex-
pressing an object by its own picture, but prefers a strange
picture, if the latter can only express that moment of the
object which it wishes to describe. This is the symbolising
activity of the phantasy. ... It is, moreover, of great
significance that the dream phantasy copies objects not in
detail, but only in outline and even this in the broadest
manner. Its paintings, therefore, appear ingeniously light and
graceful. The dream phantasy, however, does not stop at

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 71

the mere representation of the object, but is impelled from
within to mingle with the object more or less of the dream ego,
and in this way to produce an action. The visual dream, e.g.,
depicts gold coins in the street ; the dreamer picks them up,
rejoices, and carries them away.

According to Schemer, the material upon which the dream
phantasy exerts its artistic activity is preponderately that of
the organic sensory stimuli which are so obscure during the
day (comp. p. 29) ; hence the phantastic theory of Schemer,
and the perhaps over-sober theories of Wundt and other physio-
logists, though otherwise diametrically opposed, agree perfectly
in their assumption of the dream sources and dream excitants.
But whereas, according to the physiological theory, the psychic
reaction to the inner physical stimuli becomes exhausted with
the awakening of any ideas suitable to these stimuli, these
ideas then by way of association calling to their aid other ideas,
and with this stage the chain of psychic processes seeming to
terminate according to Schemer, the physical stimuli only
supply the psychic force with a material which it may render
subservient to its phantastic intentions. For Schemer the
formation of the dream only commences where in the con-
ception of others it comes to an end.

The treatment of the physical stimuli by the dream phantasy
surely cannot be considered purposeful. The phantasy plays
a tantalising game with them, and represents the organic
source which gives origin to the stimuli in the correspondent
dream, in any plastic symbolism. Indeed Schemer holds the
opinion, not shared by Volkelt and others, that the dream
phantasy has a certain favourite representation for the entire
organism ; this representation would be the house. Fortu-
nately, however, it does not seem to limit itself in its presenta-
tion to this material ; it may also conversely employ a whole
series of houses to designate a single organ, e.g., very long rows
of houses for the intestinal excitation. On other occasions
particular parts of the house actually represent particular parts
of the body, as e.g., in the headache-dream, the ceiling of the
room (which the dream sees covered with disgusting reptile-
like spiders) represents the head.

Quite irrespective of the house symbolism, any other
suitable object may be employed for the representation of

72 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

these parts of the body which excite the dream. " Thus the
breathing lungs rind their symbol in the flaming stove with its
gaseous roaring, the heart in hollow boxes and baskets, the
bladder in round, bag-shaped, or simply hollowed objects.
The male dream of sexual excitement makes the dreamer find
in the street the upper portion of a clarinette, next to it the
same part of a tobacco pipe, and next to that a piece of fur.
The clarinette and tobacco pipe represent the approximate
shape of the male sexual organ, while the fur represents the
pubic hau. Li the female sexual dream the tightness of the
closely approximated thighs may be symbolised by a narrow
courtyard surrounded by houses, and the vagina by a very
narrow, slippery and soft footpath, leading through the court-
yard, upon which the dreamer is obliged to walk, in order
perhaps to carry a letter to a gentleman " (Volkelt, p. 39). It
is particularly noteworthy that at the end of such a physically
exciting dream, the phantasy, as it were, unmasks by repre-
senting the exciting organ or its function unconcealed. Thus
the " tooth-exciting dream " usually ends with the dreamer
taking a tooth out of his mouth.

The dream phantasy may, however, not only direct its atten-
tion to the shape of the exciting organ, but it may also make the
substance contained therein the object of the synibolisation.
Thus the dream of intestinal excitement, e.g., may lead us
through muddy streets, the bladder-exciting dream to foaming
water. Or the stimulus itself, the manner of its excitation, and
the object it covets, are represented symbolically, or the dream
ego enters into a concrete combination with the synibolisation
of its own state, as e.g., when, in the case of painful stimuli, we
struggle desperately with vicious dogs or raging bulls, or when
in the sexual dream the dreamer sees herself pursued by a naked
man. Disregarding all the possible prolixity of elaboration, a
symbolising phantastic activity remains as the central force of
every dream. Volkelt,72 in his finely and fervently written book,
next attempted to penetrate further into the character of this
phantasy and to assign to the psychical activity thus recognised,
its position in a system of philosophical ideas, which, however,
remains altogether too difficult of comprehension for any one
who is not prepared by previous schooling for the sympathetic
comprehension of philosophical modes of thinking.

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 73

Scherner connects no useful function with the activity of
the symbolising phantasy in dreams. In the dream the psyche
plays with the stimuli at its disposal. One might presume
that it plays in an improper manner. One might also ask us
whether our thorough study of Schemer's dream theory, the
arbitrariness and deviation of which from the rules of all
investigation are only too obvious, can lead to any useful results.
It would then be proper for us to forestall the rejection of
Schemer's theory without examination by saying that this
would be too arrogant. This theory is built up on the im-
pression received from his dreams by a man who paid great
attention to them, and who would appear to be personally very
well fitted to trace obscure psychic occurrences. Furthermore
it treats a subject which, for thousands of years, has appeared
mysterious to humanity though rich in its contents and re-
lations ; and for the elucidation of which stern science, as it
confesses itself, has contributed nothing beyond attempting,
in entire opposition to popular sentiment, to deny the substance
and significance of the object. Finally, let us frankly admit
that apparently we cannot avoid the phantastical in our
attempts to elucidate the dream. There are also phantastic
ganglia cells ; the passage cited on p. 63 from a sober and
exact investigator like Binz,4 which depicts how the aurora
of awakening flows along the dormant cell masses of the
cerebrum, is not inferior in fancifulness and in improbability
to Schemer's attempts at interpretation. I hope to be able
to demonstrate that there is something actual underlying the
latter, though it has only been indistinctly observed and does
not possess the character of universality entitling it to the
claim of a dream theory. For the present, Schemer's theory
of the dream, in its contrast to the medical theory, may perhaps
lead us to realise between what extremes the explanation of
dream life is still unsteadily vacillating.

(h) Relations between the Dream and Mental Diseases. — When
we speak of the relation of the dream to mental disturbances,
we may think of three different things : (1) Etiological and
clinical relations, as when a dream represents or initiates a
psychotic condition, or when it leaves such a condition behind
it. (2) Changes to which the dream life is subjected in mental
diseases. (3) Inner relations between the dream and the

74 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

psychoses, analogies indicating an intimate relationship.
These manifold, relations between the two series of phenomena
have been a favourite theme of medical authors in the earlier
periods of medical science — and again in recent times — as we
learn from the literature on the subject gathered from Spitta,64
Radestock,54 Maury,48 and Tissie.68 Sante de Sanctis has
lately directed his attention to this relationship. For the
purposes of our discussion it will suffice merely to glance at
this important subject.

In regard to the clinical and etiological relations between
the dream and the psychoses, I will report the following
observations as paradigms. Hohnbaum asserts (see Krauss,
p. 39), that the first attack of insanity frequently originates
in an anxious and terrifying dream, and that the ruling idea
has connection with this dream. Sante de Sanctis adduces
similar observations in paranoiacs, and declares the dream
to be, in some of them, the " vraie cause determinante de la
folie." The psychosis may come to life all of a sudden with the
dream causing and containing the explanation for the mental
disturbances, or it may slowly develop through further dreams
that have yet to struggle against doubt. In one of de Sanctis's
cases, the affecting dream was accompanied by light hysterical
attacks, which in their turn were followed by an anxious,
melancholic state. Fere (cited by Tissie) refers to a dream
which caused an hysterical paralysis. Here the dream is
offered us as an etiology of mental disturbance, though we
equally consider the prevailing conditions when we declare
that the mental disturbance shows its first manifestation in
dream life, that it has its first outbreak in the dream. In
other instances the dream life contained the morbid symp-
toms, or the psychosis was limited to the dream life. Thus
Thomayer 70 calls attention to anxiety dreams which must be
conceived as equivalent to epileptic attacks. Allison has
described nocturnal insanity (cited by Radestock), in which
the subjects are apparently perfectly well in the day-time,
while hallucinations, fits of frenzy, and the like regularly
appear at night. De Sanctis and Tissie report similar ob-
servations (paranoiac dream-equivalent in an alcoholic, voices
accusing a wife of infidelity). Tissie reports abundant ob-
servations from recent times in which actions of a pathological

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 75

character (based on delusions, obsessive impulses) had their
origin in dreams. Guislain describes a case in which sleep
was replaced by an intermittent insanity.

There is hardly any doubt that along with the psychology
of the dream, the physician will one day occupy himself with
the psychopathology of the dream.

In cases of convalescence from insanity, it is often especially
obvious that, while the functions of the day are normal, the
dream life may still belong to the psychosis. Gregory is said
first to have called attention to such cases (cited by Krauss 39).
Macario (reported by Tissie) gives account of a maniac who,
a week after his complete recovery again experienced in
dreams the flight of ideas and the passionate impulses of his
disease.

Concerning the changes to which the dream life is sub-
jected in chronic psychotic persons, very few investigations
have so far been made. On the other hand, timely attention
has been called to the inner relationship between the dream
and mental disturbance, which shows itself in an extensive
agreement of the manifestations occurring to both. According
to Maury,47 Cubanis, in his Rapports du physique et du moral,
first called attention to this ; following him came Lelut,
J. Moreau, and more particularly the philosopher Maine de
Biran. To be sure, the comparison is still older. Radestock 54
begins the chapter dealing with this comparison, by giving a
collection of expressions showing the analogy between the
dream and insanity. Kant somewhere says : " The lunatic
is a dreamer in the waking state." According to Krauss
" Insanity is a dream with the senses awake." Schopenhauer
terms the dream a short insanity, and insanity a long dream.
Hagen describes the delirium as dream life which has not
been caused by sleep but by disease. Wundt, in the Physio-
logical Psychology, declares : "As a matter of fact we may in
the dream ourselves five through almost all symptoms which
we meet in the insane asylums."

The specific agreements, on the basis of which such an
identification commends itself to the understanding, are
enumerated by Spitta.64 And indeed, very similarly, by Maury
in the following grouping : " (1) Suspension or at least re-
tardation, of self-consciousness, consequent ignorance of the

76 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

condition as such, and hence incapability of astonishment
and lack of moral consciousness. (2) Modified perception of
the sensory organs ; that is, perception is diminished in the
dream and generally enhanced in insanity. (3) Combination
of ideas with each other exclusively in accordance with the
laws of association and of reproduction, hence automatic
formation of groups and for this reason disproportion in the
relations between ideas (exaggerations, phantasms). And as
a result of all this : (4) Changing or transformation of the
personality and at times of the peculiarities of character
(perversities)."

Radestock gives some additional features or analogies in
the material : " Most hallucinations and illusions are found in
the sphere of the senses of sight and hearing and general
sensation. As in the dream, the smallest number of elements
is supplied by the senses of smell and taste. The fever
patient, like the dreamer, is assaulted by reminiscences from
the remote past ; what the waking and healthy man seems
to have forgotten is recollected in sleep and in disease." The
analogy between the dream and the psychosis receives its full
value only when, like a family resemblance, it is extended to
the finer mimicry and to the individual peculiarities of facial
expression.

" To him who is tortured by physical and mental sufferings
the dream accords what has been denied him by reality, to
wit, physical well-being and happiness ; so the insane, too,
see the bright pictures of happiness, greatness, subhmity, and
riches. The supposed possession of estates and the imaginary
fulfilment of wishes, the denial or destruction of which have
just served as a psychic cause of the insanity, often form the
main content of the delirium. The woman who has lost a
dearly beloved child, in her delirium experiences maternal
joys ; the man who has suffered reverses of fortune deems
himself immensely wealthy ; and the jilted girl pictures herself
in the bliss of tender love."

The above passage from Radestock, an abstract of a keen
discussion of Griesinger 31 (p. Ill), reveals with the greatest
clearness the wish fulfilment as a characteristic of the imagina-
tion, common to the dream and the psychosis. (My own
investigations have taught me that here the key to a

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 77

psychological theory of the dream and of the psychosis is to
be found.)

" Absurd combinations of ideas and weakness of judgment
are the main characteristics of the dream and of insanity."
The over-estimation of one's own mental capacity, which
appears absurd to sober judgment, is found alike both in one
and the other, and the rapid course of ideas in the dream
corresponds to the flight of ideas in the psychosis. Both are
devoid of any measure of time. The dissociation of personality
in the dream, which, for instance, distributes one's own know-
ledge between two persons, one of whom, the strange one,
corrects in the dream one's own ego, fully corresponds to the
well-known splitting of personality in hallucinatory paranoia ;
the dreamer, too, hears his own thoughts expressed by strange
voices. Even the constant delusions find their analogy in the
stereotyped recurring pathological dreams (rive obsedant).
After recovering from a delirium, patients not infrequently
declare that the disease appeared to them like an uncomfort-
able dream ; indeed, they inform us that occasionally, even
during the course of their sickness, they have felt that they
were only dreaming, just as it frequently happens in the
sleeping dream.

Considering all this, it is not surprising that Radestock
condenses his own opinion and that of many others into the
following : " Insanity, an abnormal phenomenon of disease, is
to be regarded as an enhancement of the periodically recurring
normal dream states " (p. 228).

Krauss 39 attempted to base the relationship between the
dream and insanity upon the etiology (or rather upon the
exciting sources), perhaps making the relationship even more
intimate than was possible through the analogy of the pheno-
mena they manifest. According to him, the fundamental
element common to both is, as we have learned, the organically
determined sensation, the sensation of physical stimuli, the
general feeling produced by contributions from all the organs.
Cf. Peise, cited by Maury « (p. 60).

The incontestable agreement between the dream and
mental disturbance, extending into characteristic details,
constitutes one of the strongest supports of the medical theory
of dream life, according to which the dream is represented as a

78 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

useless and disturbing process and as the expression of a reduced
psychic activity. One cannot expect, however, to derive the
final explanation of the dream from the mental disturbances,
as it is generally known in what unsatisfactory state our
understanding of the origin of the latter remains. It is very
probably, however, that a modified conception of the dream
must also influence our views in regard to the inner mechanism
of mental disturbances, and hence we may say that we are
engaged in the elucidation of the psychosis when we endeavour
to clear up the mystery of the dream.

I shall have to justify myself for not extending my summary
of the literature of the dream problems over the period be-
tween the first appearance of this book and its second edition.
If this justification may not seem very satisfactory to the
reader, I was nevertheless influenced by it. The motives
which mainly induced me to summarise the treatment of the
dream in the literature have been exhausted with the foregoing
introduction ; to have continued with this work would have
cost me extraordinary effort and would have afforded little
advantage or knowledge. For the period of nine years referred
to has yielded nothing new or valuable either for the conception
of the dream in actual material or in points of view. In most
of the publications that have since appeared my work has
remained unmentioned and unregarded ; naturally least
attention has been bestowed upon it by the so-called " investi-
gators of dreams," who have thus afforded a splendid example
of the aversion characteristic of scientific men to learning
something new. " Les savants ne sont pas curieux," said
the scoffer Anatole France. If there were such a thing in
science as right to revenge, I in turn should be justified in
ignoring the literature since the appearance of this book.
The few accounts that have appeared in scientific journals
are so full of folly and misconception that my only possible
answer to my critics would be to request them to read this
book over again. Perhaps also the request should be that
they read it as a whole.

In the works of those physicians who make use of the
psychoanalytic method of treatment (Jung, Abraham, Riklin,
Muthmann, Stekel, Rank, and others), an abundance of dreams
have been reported and interpreted in accordance with my

LITERATURE OF THE DREAM 79

instructions. In so far as these works go beyond the con-
firmation of my assertions I have noted their results in the
context of my discussion. A supplement to the literary
index at the end of this book brings together the most im-
portant of these new publications. The voluminous book on
the dream by Sante de Sanctis, of which a German translation
appeared soon after its publication, has, so to speak, crossed
with mine, so that I could take as little notice of him as the
Italian author could of me. Unfortunately, I am further
obliged to declare that this laborious work is exceedingly
poor in ideas, so poor that one could never divine from it the
existence of the problems treated by me.

I have finally to mention two publications which show a
near relation to my treatment of the dream problems. A
younger philosopher, H. Swoboda, who has undertaken to
extend W. Fliesse's discovery of biological periodicity (in
groups of twenty- three and twenty-eight days) to the psychic
field, has produced an imaginative work,* in which, among
other things, he has used this key to solve the riddle of the
dream. The interpretation of dreams would herein have
fared badly ; the material contained in dreams would be
explained through the coincidence of all those memories
which during the night complete one of the biological periods
for the first or the n-th time. A personal statement from the
author led me to assume that he himself no longer wished to
advocate this theory earnestly. But it seems I was mistaken
in this conclusion ; I shall report in another place some ob-
servations in reference to Swoboda's assertion, concerning the
conclusions of which I am, however, not convinced. It gave
me far greater pleasure to find accidentally, in an unexpected
place, a conception of the dream in essentials fully agreeing
with my own. The circumstances of time preclude the possi-
bility that this conception was influenced by a reading of my
book ; I must therefore greet this as the only demonstrable
concurrence in the literature with the essence of my dream
theory. The book which contains the passage concerning the
dream which I have in mind was published as a second edition
in 1900 by Lynkus under the title Phantasien eines Realisten.

* H. Swoboda, Die Perioden des Menschlichen Organismus, 1904.

II

METHOD OF DREAM INTERPRETATION

THE ANALYSIS OF A SAMPLE DREAM

The title which I have given my treatise indicates the tradition
which I wish to make the starting-point in my discussion of
dreams. I have made it my task to show that dreams are
capable of interpretation, and contributions to the solution
of the dream problems that have just been treated can only be
yielded as possible by-products of the settlement of my own
particular problem. With the hypothesis that dreams are
interpretable, I at once come into contradiction with the
prevailing dream science, in fact with all dream theories except
that of Schemer, for to " interpret a dream " means to declare
its meaning, to replace it by something which takes its place
in the concatenation of our psychic activities as a link of full
importance and value. But, as we have learnt, the scientific
theories of the dream leave no room for a problem of dream
interpretation, for, in the first place, according to these, the
dream is no psychic action, but a somatic process which makes
itself known to the psychic apparatus by means of signs. The
opinion of the masses has always been quite different. It
asserts its privilege of proceeding illogically, and although it
admits the dream to be incomprehensible and absurd, it
cannot summon the resolution to deny the dream all significance.
Led by a dim intuition, it seems rather to assume that the
dream has a meaning, albeit a hidden one ; that it is intended
as a substitute for some other thought process, and that it is
only a question of revealing this substitute correctly in order
to reach the hidden signification of the dream.

The laity has, therefore, always endeavoured to " interpret "
the dream, and in doing so has tried two essentially different
methods. The first of these procedures regards the dream
content as a whole and seeks to replace it by another content

80

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 81

which is intelligible and in certain respects analogous. This
is symbolic dream interpretation ; it naturally goes to pieces
at the outset in the case of those dreams which appear not only
unintelligible but confused. The construction which the
biblical Joseph places upon the dream of Pharaoh furnishes
an example of its procedure. The seven fat kine, after which
came seven lean ones which devour the former, furnish a
symbolic substitute for a prediction of seven years of famine
in the land of Egypt, which will consume all the excess which
seven fruitful years have created. Most of the artificial dreams
contrived by poets are intended for such symbolic interpreta-
tion, for they reproduce the thought conceived by the poet
in a disguise found to be in accordance with the characteristics
of our dreaming, as we know these from experience.* The
idea that the dream concerns itself chiefly with future events
whose course it surmises in advance — a relic of the prophetic
significance with which dreams were once credited — now
becomes the motive for transplanting the meaning of the
dream, found by means of symbolic interpretation, into the
future by means of an " it shall."

A demonstration of the way in which such symbolic inter-
pretation is arrived at cannot, of course, be given. Success
remains a matter of ingenious conjecture, of direct intuition,
and for this reason dream interpretation has naturally been
elevated to an art, which seems to depend upon extraordinary
gifts. f The other of the two popular methods of dream
interpretation entirely abandons such claims. It might be

* In a novel, Gradiva, of the poet W. Jensen, I accidentally discovered
several artificial dreams which were formed with perfect correctness and
which could be interpreted as though they had not been invented, but had
been dreamt by actual persons. The poet declared, upon my inquiry, that
he was unacquainted with my theory of dreams. I have made use of this
correspondence between my investigation and the creative work of the poet
as a proof of the correctness of my method of dream analysis (" Der Wahn
und die Träume," in W. Jensen's Gradiva, No. 1 of the Schriften zur
angewandten Seelenkunde, 1906, edited by me). Dr. Alfred Robitsek has
since shown that the dream of the hero in Goethe's Egmont may be inter-
preted as correctly as an actually experienced dream (" Die Analyse von
Egmont's Träume," Jahrbuch, edited by Bleuler-Freud, vol. ii., 1910.)

t After the completion of my manuscript, a paper by Stumpf (Sä) came
to my notice which agrees with my work in attempting to prove that the
dream is full of meaning and capable of interpretation. But the interpre-
tation is undertaken by means of an allegorising symbolism, without warrant
for the universal applicability of the procedure.

F

82 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

designated as the " cipher method," since it treats the dream
as a kind of secret code, in which every sign is translated into
another sign of known meaning, according to an established
key. For example, I have dreamt of a letter, and also of a
funeral or the like ; I consult a " dream book," and find that
" letter " is to be translated by " vexation," and " funeral "
by " marriage, engagement." It now remains to establish a
connection, which I again am to assume pertains to the future,
by means of the rigmarole which I have deciphered. An
interesting variation of this cipher procedure, a variation by
which its character of purely mechanical transference is to a
certain extent corrected, is presented in the work on dream
interpretation by Artemidoros of Daldis.2 Here not only the
dream content, but also the personality and station in life of
the dreamer, are taken into consideration, so that the same
dream content has a significance for the rich man, the married
man, or the orator, which is different from that for the poor
man, the unmarried man, or, say, the merchant. The essential
point, then, in this procedure is that the work of interpretation
is not directed to the entirety of the dream, but to each portion
of the dream content by itself, as though the dream were a
conglomeration, in which each fragment demands a particular
disposal. Incoherent and confused dreams are certainly the
ones responsible for the invention of the cipher method.*

* Dr. Alfred Robitsek calls my attention to the fact that Oriental dream
books, of which ours are pitiful plagiarisms, undertake the interpretation of
dream elements, mostly according to the assonance and similarity of the
words. Since these relationships must be lost by translation into our
language, the incomprehensibility of the substitutions in our popular " dream
books " may have its origin in this fact. Information as to the extraordinary
significance of puns and punning in ancient Oriental systems of culture may
be found in the writings of Hugo Winckler. The nicest example of a dream
interpretation which lias come down to us from antiquity is based on a play
upon words. Artemidoros 2 relates the following (p. 225) : " It seems to me
that Aristandros gives a happy interpretation to Alexander of Macedon.
When the latter held Tyros shut in and in a state of siege, and was angry
and depressed over the great loss of time, he dreamed that he saw a Satyros
dancing on his shield. It happened that Aristandros was near Tyros and in
the convoy of the king, who was waging war on the Syrians. By disjoining
the woi'd Satyros into <ra and rfyos, he induced the king to become more
aggressive in the siege, and thus he became master of the city. (2a Tipos —
thine is Tyros.) The dream, indeed, is so intimately connected with verbal
expression that Ferenczi" may justly remark that every tongue has its
own dream language. Dreams are, as a rule, not translatable into other
languages.

t I

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 83

The worthlessness of both these popular interpretation
procedures for the scientific treatment of the subject cannot be
questioned for a moment. The symbolic method is limited
in its application and is capable of no general demonstration.
In the cipher method everything depends upon whether the
key, the dream book, is reliable, and for that all guarantees
are lacking. One might be tempted to grant the contention
of the philosophers and psychiatrists and to dismiss the
problem of dream interpretation as a fanciful one.

I have come, however, to think differently. I have been
forced to admit that here once more we have one of those nob
infrequent cases where an ancient and stubbornly retained
popular belief seems to have come nearer to the truth of the
matter than the judgment of the science which prevails to-day.
I must insist that the dream actually has significance, and that
a scientific procedure in dream interpretation is possible. I
have come upon the knowledge of this procedure in the follow-
ing manner : —

For several years I have been occupied with the solution
of certain psychopathological structures in hysterical phobias,
compulsive ideas, and the like, for therapeutic purposes. I
have been so occupied since becoming familiar with an import-
ant report of Joseph Breuer to the effect that in those struc-
tures, regarded as morbid symptoms, solution and treatment
go hand in hand.* Where it has been possible to trace such
a pathological idea back to the elements in the psychic life of
the patient to which it owes its origin, this idea has crumbled
away, and the patient has been relieved of it. In view of the
failure of our other therapeutic efforts, and in the face of the
mysteriousness of these conditions, it seems to me tempting, in
spite of all difficulties, to press forward on the path taken by
Breuer until the subject has been fully understood. We shall
have elsewhere to make a detailed report upon the form which
the technique of this procedure has finally assumed, and the
results of the efforts which have been made. In the course
of these psychoanalytical studies, I happened upon dream
interpretation. My patients, after I had obliged them to
inform me of all the ideas and thoughts which came to them in
connection with the given theme, related their dreams, and

* Breuer and Freud, Studien über Hysterie, Vienna, 1895 ; 2nd ed. 1909.

84 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

thus taught me that a dream may be linked into the psychic
concatenation which must be followed backwards into the
memory from the pathological idea as a starting-point. The
next step was to treat the dream as a symptom, and to apply
to it the method of interpretation which had been worked out
for such symptoms.

For this a certain psychic preparation of the patient is
necessary. The double effort is made with him, to stimulate
his attention for his psychic perceptions and to eliminate the
critique with which he is ordinarily in the habit of viewing
the thoughts which come to the surface in him. For the pur-
pose of self-observation with concentrated attention, it is
advantageous that the patient occupy a restful position and
close his eyes ; he must be explicitly commanded to resign
the critique of the thought-formations which he perceives.
He must be told further that the success of the psychoanalysis
depends upon his noticing and telling everything that passes
through his mind, and that he must not allow himself to
suppress one idea because it seems to him unimportant or
irrelevant to the subject, or another because it seems non-
sensical. He must maintain impartiality towards his ideas ;
for it would be owing to just this critique if he were unsuccessful
in finding the desired solution of the dream, the obsession, or
the like.

I have noticed in the course of my psychoanalytic work
that the state of mind of a man in contemplation is entirely
different from that of a man who is observing his psychic
processes. In contemplation there is a greater play of psychic
action than in the most attentive self-observation ; this is
also shown by the tense attitude and wrinkled brow of
contemplation, in contrast with the restful features of self-
observation. In both cases, there must be concentration of
attention, but, besides this, in contemplation one exercises a
critique, in consequence of which he rejects some of the ideas
which he has perceived, and cuts short others, so that he does
not follow the trains of thought which they would open ;
toward still other thoughts he may act in such a manner that
they do not become conscious at all — that is to say, they are
suppressed before they are perceived. In self-observation,
on the other hand, one has only the task of suppressing the

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 85

critique ; if he succeeds in this, an unlimited, number of ideas,
which otherwise would have been impossible for him to grasp,
come to his consciousness. With the aid of this material,
newly secured for the purpose of self-observation, the inter-
pretation of pathological ideas, as well as of dream images, can
be accomplished. As may be seen, the point is to bring about
a psychic state to some extent analogous as regards the appor-
tionment of psychic energy (transferable attention) to the
state prior to falling asleep (and indeed also to the hypnotic
state). In falling asleep, the " undesired ideas " come into
prominence on account of the slackening of a certain arbitrary
(and certainly also critical) action, which we allow to exert
an influence upon the trend of our ideas ; we are accustomed
to assign " fatigue " as the reason for this slackening ; the
emerging undesired ideas as the reason are changed into visual
and acoustic images. {Gf. the remarks of Schleiermacher 61)
and others, p. 40.) In the condition which is used for the
analysis of dreams and pathological ideas, this activity is
purposely and arbitrarily dispensed with, and the psychic
energy thus saved, or a part of it, is used for the attentive
following of the undesired thoughts now coming to the surface,
which retain their identity as ideas (this is the difference from
the condition of falling asleep). " Undesired ideas " are thus
changed into " desired " ones.

The suspension thus required of the critique for these
apparently " freely rising " ideas, which is here demanded
and which is usually exercised on them, is not easy for some
persons. The " undesired ideas " are in the habit of starting
the most violent resistance, which seeks to prevent them from
coming to the surface. But if we may credit our great poet-
philosopher Friedrich Schiller, a very similar tolerance must
be the condition of poetic production. At a point in his
correspondence with Koerner, for the noting of which we are
indebted to Mr. Otto Rank, Schiller answers a friend who
complains of his lack of creativeness in the following words :
" The reason for your complaint lies, it seems to me, in the
constraint which your intelligence imposes upon your imagina-
tion. I must here make an observation and illustrate it by an
allegory. It does not seem beneficial, and it is harmful for
the creative work of the mind, if the intelligence inspects too

86 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

closely the ideas already pouring in, as it were, at the gates.
Regarded by itself, an idea may be very trifling and very ad-
venturous, but it perhaps becomes important on account of
one which follows it ; perhaps in a certain connection with
others, which may seem equally absurd, it is capable of forming
a very useful construction. The intelligence cannot judge all
these things if it does not hold them steadily long enough to
see them in connection with the others. In the case of a
creative mind, however, the intelligence has withdrawn its
watchers from the gates, the ideas rush in pell-mell, and it is
only then that the great heap is looked over and critically
examined. Messrs. Critics, or whatever else you may call
yourselves, you are ashamed or afraid of the momentary and
transitory madness which is found in all creators, and whose
longer or shorter duration distinguishes the thinking artist
from the dreamer. Hence your complaints about barrenness,
for you reject too soon and discriminate too severely " (Letter
of December 1, 1788).

And yet, " such a withdrawal of the watchers from the
gates of intelligence," as Schiller calls it, such a shifting into
the condition of uncritical self-observation, is in no way
difficult.

Most of my patients accomplish it after the first instructions ;
I myself can do it very perfectly, if I assist the operation by
writing down my notions. The amount, in terms of psychic
energy, by which the critical activity is in this maimer reduced,
and by which the intensity of the self-observation may be
increased, varies widely according to the subject matter upon
which the attention is to be fixed.

The first step in the application of this procedure now
teaches us that not the dream as a whole, but only the parts
of its contents separately, may be made the object of our
attention. If I ask a patient who is as yet unpractised :
" What occurs to you in connection with this dream ? " as
a rule he is unable to fix upon anything in his psychic field of
vision. I must present the dream to him piece by piece, then
for every fragment he gives me a series of notions, which
may be designated as the " background thoughts " of this
part of the dream. In this first and important condition, then,
the method of dream interpretation which I employ avoids

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 87

the popular, traditional method of interpretation by symbolism
famous in the legends, and approaches the second, the " cipher
method." Like this one it is an interpretation in detail, not
en masse; like this it treats the dream from the beginning as
something put together — as a conglomeration of psychic images.
In the course of my psychoanalysis of neurotics, I have
indeed already subjected many thousand dreams to inter-
pretation, but I do not now wish to use this material in the
introduction to the technique and theory of dream interpreta-
tion. Quite apart from the consideration that I should expose
myself to the objection that these are dreams of neuropathic
subjects, the conclusions drawn from which would not admit
of reapplication to the dreams of healthy persons, another
reason forces me to reject them. The theme which is naturally
always the subject of these dreams, is the history of the disease
which is responsible for the neurosis. For this purpose there
would be required a very long introduction and an investiga-
tion into the nature and logical conditions of psychoneuroses,
things which are in themselves novel and unfamiliar in the
highest degree, and which would thus distract attention from
the dream problem. My purpose lies much more in the
direction of preparing the ground for a solution of difficult
problems in the psychology of the neuroses by means of the
solution of dreams. But if I ehminate the dreams of neurotics,
I must not treat the remainder too discriminatingly. Only
those dreams still remain which have been occasionally related
to me by healthy persons of my acquaintance, or which I find
as examples in the literature of dream life. Unfortunately
in all these dreams the analysis is lacking, without which I
cannot find the meaning of the dream. My procedure is, of
course, not as easy as that of the popular cipher method, which
translates the given dream content according to an established
key ; I am much more prepared to find that the same dream
may cover a different meaning in the case of different persons,
and in a different connection I must then resort to my own
dreams, as an abundant and convenient material, furnished
by a person who is about normal, and having reference to many
incidents of everyday life. I shall certainly be with doubts
as to the trustworthiness of these " self -analyses." Arbitrari-
ness is here in no way avoided. In my opinion, conditions are

88 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

more likely to be favourable in self-observation than in the
observation of others ; in any case, it is permissible to see how
much can be accomplished by means of self-analysis. I must
overcome further difficulties arising from inner self. One has
a readily understood aversion to exposing so many intimate
things from one's own psychic life, and one does not feel safe
from the misinterpretation of strangers. But one must be
able to put one's self beyond this. " Toute psychologiste,"
writes Delboeuf,26 " est oblige de faire l'aveu meme de ses
faiblesses s'il croit par lä jeter du jour sur quelque probleme
obscure." And I may assume that in the case of the reader,
the immediate interest in the indiscretions which I must
commit will very soon give way to exclusive engrossment in
the psychological problems which are illuminated by them.

I shall, therefore, select one of my own dreams and use it to
elucidate my method of interpretation. Every such dream
necessitates a preliminary statement. I must now beg the
reader to make my interests his own for a considerable time,
and to become absorbed with me in the most trifling details
of my life, for an interest in the hidden significance of dreams
imperatively demands such transference.

Preliminary statement : In the summer of 1895 I had
psychoanalytically treated a young lady who stood in close
friendship to me and those near to me. It is to be understood
that such a complication of relations may be the source of
manifold feelings for the physician, especially for the psycho-
therapist. The personal interest of the physician is greater,
his authority is less. A failure threatens to undermine the
friendship with the relatives of the patient. The cure ended
with partial success, the patient got rid of her hysterical fear,
but not of all her somatic symptoms. I was at that time
not yet sure of the criteria marking the final settlement of a
hysterical case, and expected her to accept a solution which did
not seem acceptable to her. In this disagreement, we cut
short the treatment on account of the summer season. One
day a younger colleague, one of my best friends, who had
visited the patient — Irma — and her family in their country
resort, came to see me. I asked him how he found her, and
received the answer : " She is better, but not altogether well."
I realise that those words of my friend Otto, or the tone of

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 89

voice in which they were spoken, made me angry. I thought
I heard a reproach in the words, perhaps to the effect that I
had promised the patient too much, and rightly or wrongly
I traced Otto's supposed siding against me to the influence
of the relatives of the patient, who, I assume, had never
approved of my treatment. Moreover, my disagreeable im-
pression did not become clear to me, nor did I give it ex-
pression. The very same evening, I wrote down the history
of Irma's case, in order to hand it, as though for my justifica-
tion, to Dr. M., a mutual friend, who was at that time a leading
figure in our circle. During the night following this evening
(perhaps rather in the morning) I had the following dream,
which was registered immediately after waking : —

Dream of July 23-24, 1895

A great hall — many guests whom we are receiving — among
them Irma, whom I immediately take aside, as though to answer
her letter, to reproach her for not yet accepting the " solution."
I say to her : "If you still have pains, it is really only your own
fault." She answers : "If you only knew what pains I now
have in the neck, stomach, and abdomen ; I am drawn together."
I am frightened and look at her. She looks pale and bloated ; I
think that after all I must be overlooking some organic affection.
I take her to the window and look into her throat. She shows
some resistance to this, like a woman who has a false set of teeth.
I think anyway she does not need them. The mouth then really
opens without difficulty and I find a large white spot to the right,
and at another place I see extended grayish-white scabs attached
to curious curling formations, which have obviously been formed
like the turbinated bone — / quickly call Dr. M., who repeats the
examination and confirms it. . . . Dr. M.'s looks are altogether
unusual ; he is very pale, limps, and has no beard on his chin.
. . . My friend Otto is now also standing next to her, and my
friend Leopold percusses her small body and says : " She has
some dulness on the left below," and also calls attention to an
infiltrated portion of the skin on the left shoulder (something
which I feel as he does, in spite of the dress). . . . M . says : " No
doubt it is an infection, but it does not matter ; dysentery will
develop too, and the poison will be excreted. . . . We also have

90 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

immediate knowledge of the origin of the infection. My friend
Otto has recently given her an injection with a propyl preparation
when she felt ill, propyls. . . . Propionic acid . . . Trimethy-
lamine {the formula of which I see printed before me in heavy
type). . . . Such injections are not made so rashly. . . . Pro-
bably also the syringe was not clean.

This dream has an advantage over many others. It is
at once clear with what events of the preceding day it is con-
nected, and what subject it treats. The preliminary statement
gives information on these points. The news about Irma's
health which I have received from Otto, the history of the
illness upon which I have written until late at night, have
occupied my psychic activity even during sleep. In spite of
all this, no one, who has read the preliminary report and has
knowledge of the content of the dream, has been able to guess
what the dream signifies. Nor do I myself know. I wonder
about the morbid symptoms, of which Irma complains in the
dream, for they are not the same ones for which I have treated
her. I smile about the consultation with Dr. M. I smile at
the nonsensical idea of an injection with propionic acid, and at
the consolation attempted by Dr. M. Towards the end the
dream seems more obscure and more terse than at the be-
ginning. In order to learn the significance of all this, I am
compelled to undertake a thorough analysis.

Analysis

The hall — many guests, whom we are receiving.

We were living this summer at the Bellevue, in an isolated
house on one of the hills which he close to the Kahlenberg.
This house was once intended as a place of amusement, and
on this account has unusually high, hall-like rooms. The
dream also occurred at the Bellevue, a few days before the
birthday of my wife. During the day, my wife had expressed
the expectation that several friends, among them Irma, would
come to us as guests for her birthday. My dream, then,
anticipates this situation : It is the birthday of my wife, and
many people, among them Irma, are received by us as guests
in the great hall of the Bellevue.

/ reproach Irma for not having accepted the solution. I say :
" If you still have pains, it is your own fault."

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 91

I might have said this also, or did say it, while awake. At
that time I had the opinion (recognised later to be incorrect)
that my task was limited to informing patients of the hidden
meaning of their symptoms. Whether they then accepted or
did not accept the solution upon which success depended — for
that I was not responsible. I am thankful to this error, which
fortunately has now been overcome, for making life easier for
me at a time when, with all my unavoidable ignorance, I
was to produce successful cures. But I see in the speech
which I make to Irma in the dream, that above all things I
do not want to be to blame for the pains which she still feels.
If it is Irma's own fault, it cannot be mine. Should the
purpose of the dream be looked for in this quarter ?

Irma's complaints ; pains in the neck, abdomen, and stomach ;
she is drawn together.

Pains in the stomach belonged to the symptom-complex of
my patient, but they were not very prominent ; she com-
plained rather of sensations of nausea and disgust. Pains in
the neck and abdomen and constriction of the throat hardly
played a part in her case. I wonder why I decided upon this
choice of symptoms, nor can I for the moment find the reason.

She looks pale and bloated.

My patient was always ruddy. I suspect that another
person is here being substituted for her.

/ am frightened at the thought that I must have overlooked some
organic affection.

This, as the reader will readily believe, is a constant fear
with the specialist, who sees neurotics almost exclusively,
and who is accustomed to ascribe so many manifestations,
which other physicians treat as organic, to hysteria. On the
other hand, I am haunted by a faint doubt — I know not whence
it comes — as to whether my fear is altogether honest. If
Irma's pains are indeed of organic origin, I am not bound to
cure them. My treatment, of course, removes only hysterical
pains. It seems to me, in fact, that I wish to find an error in
the diagnosis ; in that case the reproach of being unsuccessful
would be removed.

/ take her to the window in order to look into her throat. She
resists a little, like a woman who has false teeth. I think she does
not need them anyway.

92 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

I had never had occasion to inspect Irma's aural cavity.
The incident in the dream reminds me of an examination,
made some time before, of a governess who at first gave an
impression of youthful beauty, but who upon opening her
mouth took certain measures for concealing her teeth. Other
memories of medical examinations and of little secrets which
are discovered by them, unpleasantly for both examiner and
examined, connect themselves with this case. " She does not
need them anyway," is at first perhaps a compliment for
Irma ; but I suspect a different meaning. In careful analysis
one feels whether or not the " background thoughts " which
are to be expected have been exhausted. The way in which
Irma stands at the window suddenly reminds me of another
experience. Irma possesses an intimate woman friend, of
whom I think very highly. One evening on paying her a visit
I found her in the position at the window reproduced in the
dream, and her physician, the same Dr. M., declared that she
had a diphtheritic membrane. The person of Dr. M. and the
membrane return in the course of the dream. Now it occurs
to me that during the last few months, I have been given every
reason to suppose that this lady is also hysterical. Yes, Irma
herself has betrayed this to me. But what do I know about
her condition ? Only the one thing, that like Irma she
suffers from hysterical choking in dreams. Thus in the
dream I have replaced my patient by her friend. Now I
remember that I have often trifled with the expectation that
this lady might likewise engage me to relieve her of her
symptoms. But even at the time I thought it improbable,
for she is of a very shy nature. She resists, as the dream
shows. Another explanation might be that she does not need
it ; in fact, until now she has shown herself strong enough to
master her condition without outside help. Now only a few
features remain, which I can assign neither to Irma nor to her
friend : Pale, bloated, false teeth. The false teeth lead me to
the governess ; I now feel inclined to be satisfied with bad
teeth. Then another person, to whom these features may
allude, occurs to me. She is not my patient, and I do not
wish her to be my patient, for I have noticed that she is not
at her ease with me, and I do not consider her a docile patient.
She is generally pale, and once, when she had a particularly

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 93

good spell, she was bloated.* I have thus compared my
patient Irma with two others, who would likewise resist
treatment. What can it mean that I have exchanged her for
her friend in the dream % Perhaps that I wish to exchange
her ; either the other one arouses in me stronger sympathies
or I have a higher opinion of her intelligence. For I consider
Irma foolish because she does not accept my solution. The
other one would be more sensible, and would thus be more
likely to yield. The mouth then really opens without difficulty ;
she would tell more than Irma.|

What I see in the throat ; a white spot and scabby nostrils.

The white spot recalls diphtheria, and thus Irma's friend,
but besides this it recalls the grave illness of my eldest daughter
two years before and all the anxiety of that unfortunate time.
The scab on the nostrils reminds me of a concern about my own
health. At that time I often used cocaine in order to suppress
annoying swellings in the nose, and had heard a few days before
that a lady patient who did likewise had contracted an ex-
tensive necrosis of the nasal mucous membrane. The re-
commendation of cocaine, which I had made in 1885, had also
brought grave reproaches upon me. A dear friend, already
dead in 1895, had hastened his end through the misuse of this
remedy.

I quickly call Dr. M., who repeats the examination.

This would simply correspond to the position which M.
occupied among us. But the word " quickly " is striking
enough to demand a special explanation. It reminds me of a
sad medical experience. By the continued prescription of a
remedy (sulfonal) which was still at that time considered
harmless, I had once caused the severe intoxication of a
woman patient, and I had turned in great haste to an older,

* The complaint, as yet unexplained, of pains in the abdomen, may also
be referred to this third person. It is my own wife, of course, who is in
question ; the abdominal pains remind me of one of the occasions upon
which her shyness became evident to me. 1 must myself admit that 1 do
not treat Irma and my wife very gallantly in this dream, but let it be said
for my excuse that I am judging both of them by the standard of the
courageous, docile, female patient.

f I suspect that the interpretation of this portion has not been carried
far enough to follow every hidden meaning. If I were to continue the
comparison of the three women, I would go far afield. Every dream has at
least one point at which it is unfathomable, a central point, as it were, con-
necting it with the unknown.

94 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

more experienced colleague for assistance. The fact that I
really had this case in mind is confirmed by an accessory
circumstance. The patient, who succumbed to the intoxica-
tion, bore the same name as my eldest daughter. I had never
thought of this until now ; now it seems to me almost like a
retribution of fate — as though I ought to continue the replace-
ment of the persons here in another sense ; this Matilda for
that Matilda ; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It is as
though I were seeking every opportunity to reproach myself
with lack of medical conscientiousness.

Dr. M. is pale, without a beard on his chin, and he limps.

Of this so much is correct, that his unhealthy appearance
often awakens the concern of his friends. The other two
characteristics must belong to another person. A brother
living abroad occurs to me, who wears his chin clean-shaven,
and to whom, if I remember aright, M. of the dream on the
whole bears some resemblance. About him the news arrived
some days before that he was lame on account of an arthritic
disease in the hip. There must be a reason why I fuse the two
persons into one in the dream. I remember that in fact I
was on bad terms with both of them for similar reasons. Both
of them had rejected a certain proposal which I had recently
made to them.

My friend Otto is now standing next to the sick woman, and
my friend Leopold examines her and calls attention to a dulness
on the left below.

My friend Leopold is also a physician, a relative of Otto.
Since the two practise the same specialty, fate has made them
competitors, who are continually being compared with each
other. Both of them assisted me for years, while I was still
directing a public dispensary for nervous children. Scenes
like the one reproduced in the dream have often taken place
there. While I was debating with Otto about the diagnosis of
a case, Leopold had examined the child anew and had made
an unexpected contribution towards the decision. For there
was a difference of character between the two similar to that
between Inspector Brassig and his friend Charles. The one
was distinguished for his brightness, the other was slow,
thoughtful, but thorough. If I contrast Otto and the careful
Leopold in the dream, I do it, apparently, in order to extol

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 95

Leopold. It is a comparison similar to the one above between
the disobedient patient Irma and her friend who is thought to
be more sensible. I now become aware of one of the tracks
along which the thought association of the dream progresses ;
from the sick child to the children's asylum. The dulness to
the left, below, recalls a certain case corresponding to it, in
every detail in which Leopold astonished me by his thorough-
ness. Besides this, I have a notion of something like a metastatic
affection, but it might rather be a reference to the lady patient
whom I should like to have instead of Irma. For this lady, as
far as I can gather, resembles a woman suffering from tuber-
culosis.

An infiltrated portion of shin on the left shoulder.

I see at once that this is my own rheumatism of the shoulder,
which I always feel when I have remained awake until late at
night. The turn of phrase in the dream also sounds ambiguous ;
something which I feel ... in spite of the dress. " Feel on
my own body " is intended. Moreover, I am struck with the
unusual sound of the term " infiltrated portion of skin." " An
infiltration behind on the upper left " is what we are accus-
tomed to ; this would refer to the lung, and thus again to
tuberculosis patients.

In spite of the dress.

This, to be sure, is only an interpolation. We, of course,
examine the children in the clinic undressed ; it is some sort
of contradiction to the manner in which grown-up female
patients must be examined. The story used to be told of a
prominent clinician that he always examined his patients
physically only through the clothes. The rest is obscure to
me ; I have, frankly, no inclination to follow the matter
further.

Dr. M. says : "It is an infection, but it does not matter.
Dysentery will develop, and the poison will be excreted.

This at first seems ridiculous to me ; still it must be care-
fully analysed like everything else. Observed more closely,
it seems, however, to have a kind of meaning. What I had
found in the patient was local diphtheritis. I remember the
discussion about diphtheritis and diphtheria at the time of
my daughter's illness. The latter is the general infection
which proceeds from local diphtheritis. Leopold proves the

96 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

existence of such general infection by means of the dulness,
which thus suggests a metastatic lesion. I believe, however,
that just this kind of metastasis does not occur in the case of
diphtheria. It rather recalls pyaemia.

It does not matter, is a consolation. I believe it fits in as
follows : The last part of the dream has yielded a content to
the effect that the pains of the patient are the result of a serious
organic affection. I begin to suspect that with this I am only
trying to shift the blame from myself. Psychic treatment
cannot be held responsible for the continued presence of
diphtheritic affection. But now, in turn, I am disturbed at
inventing such serious suffering for Irma for the sole purpose
of exculpating myself. It seems cruel. I need (accordingly)
the assurance that the result will be happy, and it does not
seem ill-advised that I should put the words of consolation
into the mouth of Dr. M. But here I consider myself superior
to the dream, a fact which needs explanation.

But why is this consolation so nonsensical ?

Dysentery :

Some sort of far-fetched theoretical notion that pathological
material may ■ be removed through the intestines. Am I in
this way trying to make fun of Dr. M.'s great store of far-
fetched explanations, his habit of finding curious pathological
relationships ? Dysentery suggests something else. A few
months ago I had in charge a young man suffering from re-
markable pains during evacuation of the bowels, a case which
colleagues had treated as " anaemia with malnutrition." I
realised that it was a question of hysteria ; I was unwilling
to use my psychotherapy on him, and sent him off on a sea
voyage. Now a few days before I had received a despairing
letter from him from Egypt, saying that while there he had
suffered a new attack, which the physician had declared to be
dysentery. I suspect, indeed, that the diagnosis was only an
error of my ignorant colleague, who allows hysteria to make a
fool of him ; but still I cannot avoid reproaching myself for
putting the invalid in a position where he might contract an
organic affection of the bowels in addition to his hysteria.
Furthermore, dysentery sounds like diphtheria, a word which
docs not occur in the dream.

Indeed it must be that, with the consoling prognosis :

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 97

"Dysentery will develop, &c," I am making fun of Dr. M.,
for I recollect that years ago he once jokingly told a very similar
story of another colleague. He had been called to consult
with this colleague in the case of a woman who was very
seriously ill and had felt obliged to confront the other phy-
sician, who seemed very hopeful, with the fact that he found
albumen in the patient's urine. The colleague, however, did
not let this worry him, but answered calmly : " That does not
matter, doctor ; the albumen will without doubt be excreted."
Thus I can no longer doubt that derision for those colleagues
who are ignorant of hysteria is contained in this part of the
dream. As though in confirmation, this question now arises
in my mind : " Does Dr. M. know that the symptoms of his
patient, of our friend Irma, which give cause for fearing
tuberculosis, are also based on hysteria ? Has he recognised
this hysteria, or has he stupidly ignored it ? "

But what can be my motive in treating this friend so badly ?
This is very simple : Dr. M. agrees with my solution as little
as Irma herself. I have thus already in this dream taken
revenge on two persons, on Irma in the words, " If you still
have pains, it is your own fault," and on Dr. M. in the wording
of the nonsensical consolation which has been put into his
mouth.

We have immediate knowledge of the origin of the infection.

This immediate knowledge in the dream is very remarkable.
Just before we did not know it, since the infection was first
demonstrated by Leopold.

My friend Otto has recently given her an injection when she
felt ill.

Otto had actually related that in the short time of his visit
to Irma's family, he had been called to a neighbouring hotel
in order to give an injection to some one who fell suddenly ill.
Injections again recall the unfortunate friend who has poisoned
himself with cocaine. I had recommended the remedy to
him merely for internal use during the withdrawal of morphine,
but he once gave himself injections of cocaine.

With a propyl preparation . . . propyls . . . propionic acid.
How did this ever occur to me ? On the same evening on
which I had written part of the history of the disease before
having the dream, my wife opened a bottle of cordial labelled

G

98 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

" Ananas," * (which was a present from our friend Otto.
For he had a habit of making presents on every possible
occasion ; I hope he will some day be cured of this by a wife).f
Such a smell of fusel oil arose from this cordial that I refused
to taste it. My wife observed : " We will give this bottle to
the servants," and I, still more prudent, forbade it, with the
philanthropic remark : " They mustn't be poisoned either." The
smell of fusel oil (amyl . . .) has now apparently awakened
in my memory the whole series, propyl, methyl, &c, which has
furnished the propyl preparation of the dream. In this, it is
true, I have employed a substitution ; I have dreamt of
propyl, after smelling amyl, but substitutions of this kind are
perhaps permissible, especially in organic chemistry.

Trimethylamin. I see the chemical formula of this substance
in the dream, a fact which probably gives evidence of a great
effort on the part of my memory, and, moreover, the formula is
printed in heavy type, as if to lay special stress upon something
of particular importance, as distinguished from the context. To
what does this trimethylamin lead, which has been so forcibly
called to my attention ? It leads to a conversation with
another friend who for years has known all my germinating
activities, as I have his. At that time he had just informed
me of some of his ideas about sexual chemistry, and had
mentioned, among others, that he thought he recognised in tri-
methylamin one of the products of sexual metabolism. This
substance thus leads me to sexuality, to that factor which I
credit with the greatest significance for the origin of the nervous
affections which I attempt to cure. My patient Irma is a
young widow ; if I am anxious to excuse the failure of her
cure, I suppose I shall best do so by referring to this condition,
which her admirers would be glad to change. How remarkably,
too, such a dream is fashioned ! The other woman, whom I
take as my patient in the dream instead of Irma, is also a
young widow.

I suspect why the formula of trimethylamin has made

* " Ananas," moreover, has a remarkable assonance to the family name of
my patient Irma.

t In this the dream did not tiirn out to be prophetic. But in another
sense, it proved correct, for the " unsolved " stomach pains, for which I did
not want to be to blame, were the forerunners of a serious illness caused by
gall stones.

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 99

itself so prominent in the dream. So many important things
are gathered up in this one word : Trimethylamin is not only
an allusion to the overpowering factor of sexuality, but also
to a person whose sympathy I remember with satisfaction when
I feel myself forsaken in my opinions. Should not this friend,
who plays such a large part in my life, occur again in the chain
of thoughts of the dream ? Of course, he must ; he is par-
ticularly acquainted with the results which proceed from
affections of the nose and its adjacent cavities, and has re-
vealed to science several highly remarkable relations of the
turbinated bones to the female sexual organs (the three
curly formations in Irma's throat). I have had Irma examined
by him to see whether the pains in her stomach might be
of nasal origin. But he himself suffers from suppurative
rhinitis, which worries him, and to this perhaps there is an
allusion in pyaemia, which hovers before me in the metastases
of the dream.

Such injections are not made so rashly. Here the reproach of
carelessness is hurled directly at my friend Otto. I am under
the impression that I had some thought of this sort in the
afternoon, when he seemed to indicate his siding against
me by word and look. It was perhaps : " How easily he
can be influenced ; how carelessly he pronounces judgment."
Furthermore, the above sentence again points to my deceased
friend, who so lightly took refuge in cocaine injections. As
I have said, I had not intended injections of the remedy at
all. I see that in reproaching Otto I again touch upon the
story of the unfortunate Matilda, from which arises the same
reproach against me. Obviously I am here collecting examples
of my own conscientiousness, but also of the opposite.

Probably also the syringe was not clean. Another reproach
directed at Otto, but originating elsewhere. The day before I
happened to meet the son of a lady eighty-two years of age
whom I am obliged to give daily two injections of morphine.
At present she is in the country, and I have heard that she is
suffering from an inflammation of the veins. I immediately
thought that it was a case of infection due to contamination
from the syringe. It is my pride that in two years I have not
given her a single infection ; I am constantly concerned, of
course, to see that the syringe is perfectly clean. For I am

100 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

conscientious. From the inflammation of the veins, I return
to my wife, who had suffered from emboli during a period of
pregnancy, and now three related situations come to the
surface in my memory, involving my wife, Irma, and the
deceased Matilda, the identity of which three persons plainly
justifies my putting them in one another's place.

I have now completed the interpretation of the dream.*
In the course of this interpretation I have taken great pains
to get possession of all the notions to which a comparison
between the dream content and the dream thoughts hidden
behind it must have given rise. Meanwhile, the " meaning "
of the dream has dawned upon me. I have become conscious
of a purpose which is realised by means of the dream, and which
must have been the motive for dreaming. The dream fulfils
several wishes, which have been actuated in me by the events
of the preceding evening (Otto's news, and the writing down of
the history of the disease). For the result of the dream is
that I am not to blame for the suffering which Irma still has,
and that Otto is to blame for it. Now Otto has made me angry
by his remark about Irma's imperfect cure ; the dream avenges
me upon him by turning the reproach back upon himself.
The dream acquits me of responsibility for Irma's condition
by referring it to other causes, which indeed furnish a great
number of explanations. The dream represents a certain
condition of affairs as I should wish it to be ; the content of the
dream is thus the fulfilment of a wish ; its motive is a wish.

This much is apparent at first sight. But many things in
the details of the dream become intelligible when regarded from
the point of view of wish-fulfilment. I take revenge on Otto,
not only for hastily taking part against me, in that I accuse
him of a careless medical operation (the injection), but I am
also avenged on him for the bad cordial which smells like fusel
oil, and I find an expression in the dream which unites both
reproaches ; the injection with a preparation of propyl. Still
I am not satisfied, but continue my revenge by comparing
him to his more reliable competitor. I seem to say by this :
" I like him better than you." But Otto is not the only one
who must feel the force of my anger. I take revenge on the

* Even if I have not, as may be understood, given account of everything
which occurred to me in connection with the work of interpretation.

METHOD OF INTERPRETATION 101

disobedient patient by exchanging her for a more sensible,
more docile one. Nor do I leave the contradiction of Dr. M.
unnoticed, but express my opinion of him in an obvious
allusion, to the effect that his relation to the question is that of
an ignoramus (" dysentery will develop" &c).

It seems to me, indeed, as though I were appealing from him
to some one better informed (my friend, who has told me about
trimethylamin) ; just as I have turned from Irma to her
friend, I turn from Otto to Leopold. Rid me of these three
persons, replace them by three others of my own choice, and
I shall be released from the reproaches which I do not wish
to have deserved ! The unreasonableness itself of these re-
proaches is proved to me in the dream in the most elaborate
way. Irma's pains are not charged to me, because she herself
is to blame for them, in that she refuses to accept my solution.
Irma's pains are none of my business, for they are of an
organic nature, quite impossible to be healed by a psychic
cure. Irma's sufferings are satisfactorily explained by her
widowhood (trimethylamin !) ; a fact which, of course, I
cannot alter. Irma's illness has been caused by an incautious
injection on the part of Otto, with an ill-suited substance —
in a way I should never have made an injection. Irma's
suffering is the result of an injection made with an unclean
syringe, just like the inflammation of the veins in my old
lady, while I never do any such mischief with my injections.
I am aware, indeed, that these explanations of Irma's illness,
which unite in acquitting me, do not agree with one another ;
they even exclude one another. The whole pleading — this
dream is nothing else — recalls vividly the defensive argument
of a man who was accused by his neighbour of having returned
a kettle to him in a damaged condition. In the first place,
he said, he had returned the kettle undamaged ; in the second,
it already had holes in it when he borrowed it ; and thirdly, he
had never borrowed the kettle from his neighbour at all. But
so much the better ; if even one of these three methods of
defence is recognised as valid, the man must be acquitted.

Still other subjects mingle in the dream, whose relation
to my release from responsibility for Irma's illness is not so
transparent : the illness of my daughter and that of a patient
of the same name, the harmfulness of cocaine, the illness of

102 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

my patient travelling in Egypt, concern about the health of
my wife, my brother, of Dr. M., my own bodily troubles, and
concern about the absent friend who is suffering from sup-
purative rhinitis. But if I keep all these things in view, they
combine into a single train of thought, labelled perhaps :
Concern for the health of myself and others — professional con-
scientiousness. I recall an undefined disagreeable sensation
as Otto brought me the news of Irma's condition. I should
like to note finally the expression of this fleeting sensation,
which is part of the train of thought that is mingled into the
dream. It is as though Otto had said to me : " You do not
take your physician's duties seriously enough, you are not
conscientious, do not keep your promises." Thereupon this
train of thought placed itself at my service in order that I
might exhibit proof of the high degree in which I am con-
scientious, how intimately I am concerned with the health
of my relatives, friends, and patients. Curiously enough, there
are also in this thought material some painful memories, which
correspond rather to the blame attributed to Otto than to
the accusation against me. The material has the appearance
of being impartial, but the connection between this broader
material, upon which the dream depends, and the more limited
theme of the dream which gives rise to the wish to be innocent
of Irma's illness, is nevertheless unmistakable.

I do not wish to claim that I have revealed the meaning
of the dream entirely, or that the interpretation is flawless.

I could still spend much time upon it ; I could draw further
explanations from it, and bring up new problems which it
bids us consider. I even know the points from which further
thought associations might be traced ; but such considerations
as are connected with every dream of one's own restrain me
from the work of interpretation. Whoever is ready to con-
demn such reserve, may himself try to be more straightforward
than I. I am content with the discovery which has been just
made. If the method of dream interpretation here indicated
is followed, it will be found that the -dream really has meaning,
and is by no means the expression of fragmentary brain
activity, which the authors would have us believe. When the
work of interpretation has been completed the dream may be
recognised as the fulfilment of a wish.

Ill

THE DREAM IS THE FULFILMENT OF A WISH

When after passing a defile one has reached an eminence
where the ways part and where the view opens out broadly
in different directions, it is permissible to stop for a moment
and to consider where one is to turn next. Something like
this happens to us after we have mastered this first dream
interpretation. We find ourselves in the open light of a sudden
cognition. The dream is not comparable to the irregular
sounds of a musical instrument, which, instead of being touched
by the hand of the musician, is struck by some outside force ;
the dream is not senseless, not absurd, does not presuppose
that a part of our store of ideas is dormant while another part
begins to awaken. It is a psychic phenomenon of full value,
and indeed the fulfilment of a wish ; it takes its place in the
concatenation of the waking psychic actions which are intelli-
gible to us, and it has been built up by a highly complicated
intellectual activity. But at the very moment when we are
inclined to rejoice in this discovery, a crowd of questions over-
whelms us. If the dream, according to the interpretation,
represents a wish fulfilled, what is the cause of the peculiar
and unfamiliar manner in which this fulfilment is expressed ?
What changes have occurred in the dream thoughts before they
are transformed into the manifest dream which we remember
upon awaking ? In what manner has this transformation
taken place ? Whence comes the material which has been
worked over into the dream ? What causes the peculiarities
which we observe in the dream thoughts, for example, that
they may contradict one another ? (The analogy of the kettle,
p. 87). Is the dream capable of teaching us something new
about our inner psychic processes, and can its content correct
opinions which we have held during the day ? I suggest
that for the present all these questions be laid aside, and that
a single path be pursued. We have found that the dream

103

104 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

represents a wish as fulfilled. It will be our next interest to
ascertain whether this is a universal characteristic of the
dream, or only the accidental content of the dream (" of Irma's
injection ") with which we have begun our analysis, for even
if we make up our minds that every dream has a meaning and
psychic value, we must nevertheless allow for the possibility
that this meaning is not the same in every dream. The first
dream we have considered was the fulfilment of a wish ; another
may turn out to be a realised apprehension ; a third may have
a reflection as to its content ; a fourth may simply reproduce
a reminiscence. Are there then other wish dreams ; or are
there possibly nothing but wish dreams ?

It is easy to show that the character of wish-fulfilment in
dreams is often undisguised and recognisable, so that one
may wonder why the language of dreams has not long since
been understood. There is, for example, a dream which I
can cause as often as I like, as it were experimentally. If in
the evening I eat anchovies, olives, or other strongly salted
foods, I become thirsty at night, whereupon I waken. The
awakening, however, is preceded by a dream, which each time
has the same content, namely, that I am drinking. I quaff
water in long draughts, it tastes as sweet as only a cool drink
can taste when one's throat is parched, and then I awake
and have an actual desire to drink. The occasion for this
dream is thirst, which I perceive when I awake. The wish
to drink originates from this sensation, and the dream shows
me this wish as fulfilled. It thereby serves a function the
nature of which I soon guess. I sleep well, and am not accus-
tomed to be awakened by a bodily need. If I succeed in
assuaging my thirst by means of the dream that I am drinking,
I need not wake up in order to satisfy it. It is thus a dream
of convenience. The dream substitutes itself for action, as
elsewhere in life. Unfortunately the need of water for quench-
ing thirst cannot be satisfied with a dream, like my thirst for
revenge upon Otto and Dr. M., but the intention is the same.
This same dream recently appeared in modified form. On
this occasion I became thirsty before going to bed, and emptied
the glass of water which stood on the little chest next to my
bed. Several hours later in the night came a new attack of
thirst, accompanied by discomfort. In order to obtain water,

THE FULFILMENT OF A WISH 105

I should have had to get up and fetch the glass which stood on
the night-chest of my wife. I thus quite appropriately dreamt
that my wife was giving me a drink from a vase ; this vase
was an Etruscan cinerary urn which I had brought home
from an Italian journey and had since given away. But the
water in it tasted so salty (apparently from the ashes) that
I had to wake. It may be seen how conveniently the dream
is capable of arranging matters ; since the fulfilment of a wish
is its only purpose, it may be perfectly egotistic. Love of
comfort is really not compatible with consideration for others.
The introduction of the cinerary urn is probably again the
fulfilment of a wish ; I am sorry that I no longer possess this
vase ; it, like the glass of water at my wife's side, is inaccessible
to me. The cinerary urn is also appropriate to the sensation
of a salty taste which has now grown stronger, and which I
know will force me to wake up.*

Such convenience dreams were very frequent with me in
the years of my youth. Accustomed as I had always been to
work until late at night, early awakening was always a matter
of difficulty for me. I used then to dream that I was out of
bed and was standing at the wash-stand. After a while I
could not make myself admit that I have not yet got up, but
meanwhile I had slept for a time. I am acquainted with the
same dream of laziness as dreamt by a young colleague of
mine, who seems to share my propensity for sleep. The
lodging-house keeper with whom he was living in the neigh-
bourhood of the hospital had strict orders to wake him on
time every morning, but she certainly had a lot of trouble when
she tried to carry out his orders. One morning sleep was
particularly sweet. The woman called into the room : " Mr.
Joe, get up ; you must go to the hospital." Whereupon the

* The facts about dreams of thirst were known also to Weygandt,75 who
expresses himself about them (p. 11) as follows : "It is just the sensation of
thirst which is most accurately registered of all ; it always causes a repre-
sentation of thirst quenching. The manner in which the dream pictures the
act of thirst quenching is manifold, and is especially apt to be formed accord-
ing to a recent reminiscence. Here also a universal phenomenon is that
disappointment in the slight efficacy of the supposed refreshments sets in
immediately after the idea that thirst has been quenched." But he over-
looks the fact that the reaction of the dream to the stimulus is universal.
If other persons who are troubled by thirst at night awake without dreaming
beforehand, this does not constitute an objection to my experiment, but
characterises those others as persons who sleep poorly.

106 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

sleeper dreamt of a room in the hospital, a bed in which he
was lying, and a chart pinned over his head reading : " Joe
H. . . . cand. med. 22 years old." He said to himself in the
dream : " If I am already at the hospital, I don't have to
go there," turned over and slept on. He had thus frankly
admitted to himself his motive for dreaming.

Here is another dream, the stimulus for which acts during
sleep itself : One of my women patients, who had had to
undergo an unsuccessful operation on the jaw, was to wear a
cooling apparatus on the affected cheek, according to the
orders of the physicians. But she was in the habit of throwing
it off as soon as she had got to sleep. One day I was asked
to reprove her for doing so ; for she had again thrown the
apparatus on the floor. The patient defended herself as
follows : " This time I really couldn't help it ; it was the
result of a dream which I had in the night. In the dream, I
was in a box at the opera and was taking a lively interest in
the performance. But Mr. Karl Meyer was lying in the sana-
torium and complaining pitifully on account of pains in his
jaw. I said to myself, ' Since I haven't the pains, I don't
need the apparatus either,' that's why I threw it away."
This dream of the poor sufferer is similar to the idea in the
expression which comes to our lips when we are in a disagree-
able situation : " I know something that's a great deal more
fun." The dream presents this great deal more fun. Mr. Karl
Meyer, to whom the dreamer attributed her pains, was the
most indifferent young man of her acquaintance whom she
could recall.

It is no more difficult to discover the fulfilment of wishes
in several dreams which I have collected from healthy persons.
A friend who knew my theory of dreams and had imparted it
to his wife, said to me one day : " My wife asked me to tell
you that she dreamt yesterday that she was having her menses.
You will know what that means." Of course I know : if the
young wife dreams that she is having her menses, the menses
have stopped. I can understand that she would have liked
to enjoy her freedom for a time longer before the discomforts
of motherhood began. It was a clever way of giving notice
of her first pregnancy. Another friend writes that his wife
had recently dreamt that she noticed milk stains on the bosom of

THE FULFILMENT OF A WISH 107

her waist. This is also an indication of pregnancy, but this time
not of the first one ; the young mother wishes to have more
nourishment for the second child than she had for the first.

A young woman, who for weeks had been cut off from
company because she was nursing a child that was suffering
from an infectious disease, dreams, after its safe termination,
of a company of people in which A. Daudet, Bourget, M.
Prevost, and others are present, all of whom are very pleasant
to her and entertain her admirably. The different authors
in the dream also have the features which their pictures give
them. M. Prevost, with whose picture she is not familiar,
looks like — the disinfecting man who on the previous day
had cleaned the sick rooms and had entered them as the first
visitor after a long period. Apparently the dream might be
perfectly translated thus : "It is about time now for something
more entertaining than this eternal nursing."

Perhaps this selection will suffice to prove that often and
under the most complex conditions dreams are found which
can be understood only as fulfilments of wishes, and which
present their contents without concealment. In most cases
these are short and simple dreams, which stand in pleasant
contrast to the confused and teeming dream compositions
which have mainly attracted the attention of the authors.
But it will pay to spend some time upon these simple dreams.
The most simple dreams of all, I suppose, are to be expected
in the case of children, whose psychic activities are certainly
less complicated than those of adults. The psychology of
children, in my opinion, is to be called upon for services similar
to those which a study of the anatomy and development of the
lower animals renders to the investigation of the structure of
the highest classes of animals. Until now only a few conscious
efforts have been made to take advantage of the psychology
of children for such a purpose.

The dreams of little children are simple fulfilments of wishes,
and as compared, therefore, with the dreams of adults, are
not at all interesting. They present no problem to be solved,
but are naturally invaluable as affording proof that the dream
in its essence signifies the fulfilment of a wish. I have been
able to collect several examples of such dreams from the
material furnished by my own children.

108 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

For two dreams, one of my daughters, at that time eight
and a half years old, the other of a boy five and a quarter years
of age, I am indebted to an excursion to the beautiful Hallstatt
in the summer of 1896. I must make the preliminary statement
that during this summer we were living on a hill near Aussee,
from which, when the weather was good, we enjoyed a splendid
view of the Dachstein from the roof of our house. The Simony
Hut could easily be recognised with a telescope. The little
ones often tried to see it through the telescope — I do not
know with what success. Before the excursion I had told
the children that Hallstatt lay at the foot of the Dachstein.
They looked forward to the day with great joy. From Hall-
statt we entered the valley of Eschern, which highly pleased
the children with its varying aspects. One of them, however,
the boy of five, gradually became discontented. As often as a
mountain came in view, he would ask : "Is that the Dach-
stein ? " whereupon I would have to answer : " No, only a
foot-hill." After this question had been repeated several
times, he became altogether silent ; and he was quite unwilling
to come along on the flight of steps to the waterfall. I thought
he was tired out. But the next morning, he approached me
radiant with joy, and said : " Last night I dreamt that we were
at Simony Hut." I understood him now ; he had expected,
as I was speaking of the Dachstein, that on the excursion to
Hallstatt, he would ascend the mountain and would come face
to face with the hut, about which there had been so much
discussion at the telescope. When he learned that he was
expected to be regaled with foot-hills and a waterfall, he was
disappointed and became discontented. The dream com-
pensated him for this. I tried to learn some details of the
dream ; they were scanty. " Steps must be climbed for six
hours," as he had heard.

On this excursion wishes, destined to be satisfied only in
dreams, had arisen also in the mind of the girl of eight and a
half years. We had taken with us to Halstatt the twelve-
year-old boy of our neighbour — an accomplished cavalier,
who, it seems to me, already enjoyed the full sympathy of the
little woman. The next morning, then, she related the follow-
ing dream : " Just think, I dreamt that Emil was one of us,
that he said papa and mamma to you, and slept at our house

THE FULFILMENT OF A WISH 109

in the big room like our boys. Then mamma came into the
room and threw a large handful of chocolate bars under our
beds." The brothers of the girl, who evidently had not in-
herited a familiarity with dream interpretation, declared just
like the authors : " That dream is nonsense." The girl
defended at least a part of the dream, and it is worth while,
from the point of view of the theory of neuroses, to know which
part : " That about Emil belonging to us is nonsense, but that
about the bars of chocolate is not." It was just this latter
part that was obscure to me. For this mamma furnished me
the explanation. On the way home from the railway station
the children had stopped in front of a slot machine, and had
desired exactly such chocolate bars wrapped in paper with a
metallic lustre, as the machine, according to their experience,
had for sale. But the mother had rightly thought that the day
had brought enough wish-fulfilment, and had left this wish to be
satisfied in dreams. This little scene had escaped me. I at
once understood that portion of the dream which had been con-
demned by my daughter. I had myself heard the well-behaved
guest enjoining the children to wait until papa or mamma had
come up. For the little one the dream made a lasting adoption
based on this temporary relation of the boy to us. Her tender
nature was as yet unacquainted with any form of being together
except those mentioned in the dream, which are taken from her
brothers. Why the chocolate bars were thrown under the bed
could not, of course, be explained without questioning the child.
From a friend I have learnt of a dream very similar to
that of my boy. It concerned an eight-year-old girl. The
father had undertaken a walk to Dornbach with the children,
intending to visit the Rohrerhiitte, but turned back because
it had grown too late, and promised the children to make up
for their disappointment some other time. On the way back,
they passed a sign which showed the way to the Hameau.
The children now asked to be taken to that place also, but had
to be content, for the same reason, with a postponement to
another day. The next morning, the eight-year-old girl came
to the father, satisfied, saying : " Papa, I dreamt last night
that you were with us at the Rohrerhiitte and on the Hameau."
Her impatience had thus in the dream anticipated the fulfil-
ment of the promise made by her father.

110 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Another dream, which the picturesque beauty of the Aussee
inspired in my daughter, at that time three and a quarter years
old, is equally straightforward. The little one had crossed
the lake for the first time, and the trip had passed too quickly
for her. She did not want to leave the boat at the landing,
and cried bitterly. The next morning she told us : " Last
night I was sailing on the lake." Let us hope that the dura-
tion of this dream ride was more satisfactory to her.

My eldest boy, at that time eight years of age, was already
dreaming of the realisation of his fancies. He had been riding
in a chariot with Achilles, with Diomed as charioteer. He
had, of course, on the previous day shown a lively interest
in the Myths of Greece, which had been given to his elder
sister.

If it be granted that the talking of children in sleep likewise
belongs to the category of dreaming, I may report the following
as one of the most recent dreams in my collection. My youngest
girl, at that time nineteen months old, had vomited one morn-
ing, and had therefore been kept without food throughout
the day. During the night which followed upon this day of
hunger, she was heard to call excitedly in her sleep : " Anna
Feud, strawberry, huckleberry, omelette, pap ! " She used her
name in this way in order to express her idea of property ;
the menu must have included about everything which would
seem to her a desirable meal ; the fact that berries appeared
in it twice was a demonstration against the domestic sanitary
regulations, and was based on the circumstance, by no means
overlooked by her, that the nurse ascribed her indisposition
to an over-plentiful consumption of strawberries ; she thus
in the dream took revenge for this opinion which was distaste-
ful to her.*

If we call childhood happy because it does not yet know

sexual desire, we must not forget how abundant a source of

disappointment and self-denial, and thus of dream stimulation,

* The dream afterwards accomplished the same purpose in the case of
the grandmother, who is older than the child by about seventy years, as it
did in the case of the granddaughter. After she had been forced to go
hungry for several days on account of the restlessness of her floating kidney,
she dreamed, apparently with a transference into the happy time of her
flowering maidenhood, that she had been "asked out," invited as a guest for
both the important meals, and each time had been served with the most
delicious morsels.

THE FULFILMENT OF A WISH 111

the other of the great life-impulses may become for it.* Here
is a second example showing this. My nephew of twenty-two
months had been given the task of congratulating me upon
my birthday, and of handing me, as a present, a little basket of
cherries, which at that time of the year were not yet in season.
It seemed difficult for him, for he repeated again and again :
" Cherries in it," and could not be induced to let the little
basket go out of his hands. But he knew how to secure his
compensation. He had, until now, been in the habit of telling
his mother every morning that he had dreamt of the " white
soldier," an officer of the guard in a white cloak, whom he
had once admired on the street. On the day after the birthday,
he awakened joyfully with the information which could have
had its origin only in a dream : " He(r)man eat up all the
cherries ! " f

* A more searching investigation into the psychic life of the child
teaches us, to be sure, that sexual motive powers in infantile forms, which
have been too long overlooked, play a sufficiently great part in the psychic
activity of the child. This raises some doubt as to the happiness of the
child, as imagined later by the adults. Of. the author's " Three Contribu-
tions to the Sexual Theory," translated by A. A. Brill, Journal of Nervous
and Mental Diseases Publishing Company.

t It should not be left unmentioned that children sometimes show com-
plex and more obscure dreams, while, on the other hand, adults will often
under certain conditions show dreams of an infantile character. How rich
in unsuspected material the dreams of children of from four to five years
might be is shown by examples in my " Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjähr-
igen Knaben" (Jahrbuch, ed. by Bleuler & Freud, 1909), and in Jung's
" Ueber Konflikte der kindlichen Seele " (ebda. ii. vol., 1910). On the other
hand, it seems that dreams of an infantile type reappear especially often in
adults if they are transferred to unusual conditions of life. Thus Otto
Nordenskjold, in his book Antarctic (1904), writes as follows about the crew
who passed the winter with him. " Very characteristic for the trend of our
inmost thoughts were our dreams, which were never more vivid and
numerous than at present. Even those of our comrades with whom dream-
ing had formerly been an exception had long stories to tell in the morning
when we exchanged our experiences in the world of phantasies. They all
referred to that outer world which was now so far from us, but they often
fitted into our present relations. An especially characteristic dream was the
one in which one of our comrades believed himself back on the bench at
school, where the task was assigned him of skinning miniature seals which
were especially made for the purposes of instruction. Eating and drinking
formed the central point around which most of our dreams were grouped.
One of us, who was fond of going to big dinner parties at night, was exceed-
ingly glad if he could report in the morning ' that he had had a dinner con-
sisting of three courses.' Another dreamed of tobacco — of whole mountains
of tobacco; still another dreamed of a ship approaching on the open sea
under full sail. Still another dream deserves to be mentioned. The letter
carrier brought the mail, and gave a long explanation of why he had had to
wait so long for it ; he had delivered it at the wrong place, and only after

112 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

What animals dream of I do not know. A proverb for
which I am indebted to one of my readers claims to know,
for it raises the question : " What does the goose dream of ? "
the answer being : "Of maize ! " The whole theory that the
dream is the fulfilment of a wish is contained in these sentences.*

We now perceive that we should have reached our theory
of the hidden meaning of the dream by the shortest road if
we had merely consulted colloquial usage. The wisdom of
proverbs, it is true, sometimes speaks contemptuously enough
of the dream — it apparently tries to justify science in expressing
the opinion that " Dreams are mere bubbles ; " but still for
colloquial usage the dream is the gracious fulfiller of wishes.
" I should never have fancied that in the wildest dream,"
exclaims one who finds his expectations surpassed in reality.

great effort had been able to get it back. To be sure, we occupied ourselves
in sleep with still more impossible things, but the lack of phantasy in
almost all the dreams which I myself dreamed" or heard others relate was
quite striking. It would surely have been of great psychological interest if
all the dreams could have been noted. But one can readily understand how
we longed for sleep. It alone could afford us everything that we all most
ardently desired."

* A Hungarian proverb referred to by Ferenczi 87 states more explicitly
that " the pig dreams of acorns, the goose of maize."

IV

DISTORTION IN DREAMS

If I make the assertion that wish fulfilment is the meaning of
every dream, that, accordingly, there can be no dreams except
wish dreams, I am sure at the outset to meet with the most
emphatic contradiction. Objections will be made to this
effect : " The fact that there are dreams which must be under-
stood as fulfilments of wishes is not new, but, on the contrary,
has long since been recognised by the authors. Cf. Radestock 54
(pp. 137-138), Volkelt72 (pp. 110-111), Tissie 68 (p. 70), M.
Simon 63 (p. 42) on the hunger dreams of the imprisoned Baron
Trenck), and the passage in Griesinger 31 (p. 11). The assump-
tion that there can be nothing but dreams of wish fulfilment,
however, is another of those unjustified generalisations by
which you have been pleased to distinguish yourself of late.
Indeed dreams which exhibit the most painful content, but
not a trace of wish fulfilment, occur plentifully enough. The
pessimistic philosopher, Edward von Hartman, perhaps
stands furthest from the theory of wish fulfilment. He ex-
presses himself in his Philosophy of the Unconscious, Part II.
(stereotyped edition, p. 34), to the following effect : —

" ' As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are
transferred by it to the sleeping state ; only the one thing,
which can in some measure reconcile a cultured person to
fife-scientific and artistic enjoyment is not transferred. . . .'
But even less discontented observers have laid emphasis on
the fact that in dreams pain and disgust are more frequent
than pleasure; so Scholz59 (p. 39), Volkelt72 (p. 80), and
others. Indeed two ladies, Sarah Weed and Florence Hallam,33
have found from the elaboration of their dreams a mathe-
matical expression for the preponderance of displeasure in
dreams. They designate 58 per cent, of the dreams as dis-
agreeable, and only 28*6 per cent, as positively pleasant. Besides
those dreams which continue the painful sensations of life

113 H

114 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

during sleep, there are also dreams of fear, in which this most
terrible of all disagreeable sensations tortures us until we
awake, and it is with just these dreams of fear that children
are so often persecuted (Cf. Debacker 17 concerning the Pavor
Nocturnus), though it is in the case of children that you have
found dreams of wishing undisguised."

Indeed it is the anxiety dreams which seem to prevent a
generalisation of the thesis that the dream is a wish-fulfilment,
which we have established by means of the examples in the
last section ; they seem even to brand this thesis as an ab-
surdity.

It is not difficult, however, to escape these apparently
conclusive objections. Please observe that our doctrine does
not rest upon an acceptance of the manifest dream content,
but has reference to the thought content which is found to He
behind the dream by the process of interpretation. Let us
contrast the manifest and the latent dream content. It is true
that there are dreams whose content is of the most painful
nature. But has anyone ever tried to interpret these dreams,
to disclose their latent thought content ? If not, the two
objections are no longer valid against us ; there always remains
the possibility that even painful and fearful dreams may be
discovered to be wish fulfilments upon interpretation.*

In scientific work it is often advantageous, when the solu-
tion of one problem presents difficulties, to take up a second
problem, just as it is easier to crack two nuts together instead
of separately. Accordingly we are confronted not merely
with the problem : How can painful and fearful dreams be
the fulfilments of wishes ? but we may also, from our discussion
so far, raise the question : Why do not the dreams which
show an indifferent content, but turn out to be wish-fulfilments,
show this meaning undisguised ? Take the fully reported
dream of Irma's injection ; it is in no way painful in its nature,
and can be recognised, upon interpretation, as a striking wish-
fulfilment. Why, in the first place, is an interpretation
necessary ? Why does not the dream say directly what it
means ? As a matter of fact, even the dream of Irma's in-

* It is quite incredible with what stubbornness readers and critics
exclude this consideration, and leave unheeded the fundamental differentia-
tion between the manifest and the latent dream content.

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 115

jection does not at first impress us as representing a wish of
the dreamer as fulfilled. The reader will not have received
this impression, and even I myself did not know it until I had
undertaken the analysis. If we call this peculiarity of the
dream of needing an explanation the fact of the distortion of
dreams, then a second question arises : What is the origin
of this disfigurement of dreams ?

If one's first impressions on this subject were consulted,
one might happen upon several possible solutions ; for example,
that there is an inability during sleep to find an adequate
expression for the dream thoughts. The analysis of certain
dreams, however, compels us to give the disfigurement of
dreams another explanation. I shall show this by employing
a second dream of my own, which again involves numerous
indiscretions, but which compensates for this personal sacrifice
by affording a thorough elucidation of the problem.

Preliminary Statement. — In the spring of 1897 I learnt
that two professors of our university had proposed me for
appointment as Professor extraord. (assistant professor).
This news reached me unexpectedly and pleased me con-
siderably as an expression of appreciation on the part of two
eminent men which could not be explained by personal in-
terest. But, I immediately thought, I must not permit myself
to attach any expectation to this event. The university
government had during the last few years left proposals of
this kind unconsidered, and several colleagues, who were
ahead of me in years, and who were at least my equals in merit,
had been waiting in vain during this time for their appoint-
ment. I had no reason to suppose I should fare better. I
resolved then to comfort myself. I am not, so far as I know,
ambitious, and I engage in medical practice with satisfying
results even without the recommendation of a title. Moreover,
it was not a question whether I considered the grapes sweet or
sour, for they undoubtedly hung much too high for me.

One evening I was visited by a friend of mine, one of those
colleagues whose fate I had taken as a warning for myself.
As he had long been a candidate for promotion to the position
of professor, which in our society raises the physician to a
demigod among his patients, and as he was less resigned than
I, he was in the habit of making representations from time to

116 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

time, at the offices of the university government, for the pur-
pose of advancing his interests. He came to me from a visit
of that kind. He said that this time he had driven the exalted
gentleman into a corner, and had asked him directly whether
considerations of creed were not really responsible for the
deferment of his appointment. The answer had been that
to be sure — in the present state of public opinion — His Ex-
cellency was not in a position, &c. " Now I at least know
what I am at," said my friend in closing his narrative, which
told me nothing new, but which was calculated to confirm me
in my resignation. For the same considerations of creed
applied to my own case.

On the morning after this visit, I had the following dream,
which was notable on account of its form. It consisted of
two thoughts and two images, so that a thought and an image
alternated. But I here record only the first half of the dream,
because the other half has nothing to do with the purpose
which the citation of the dream should serve.

I. Friend R. is my uncle — I feel great affection for him.

II. I see before me his face somewhat altered.

It seems to be elongated ; a yellow beard, which surrounds it,
is emphasised with peculiar distinctness.

Then follow the other two portions, again a thought and
an image, which I omit.

The interpretation of this dream was accomplished in the
following manner :

As the dream occurred to me in the course of the forenoon,
I laughed outright and said : " The dream is nonsense."
But I could not get it out of my mind, and the whole day it
pursued me, until, at last, in the evening I reproached myself
with the words : " If in the course of dream interpretation
one of your patients had nothing better to say than ' That is
nonsense,' you would reprove him, and would suspect that
behind the dream there was hidden some disagreeable affair,
the exposure of which he wanted to spare himself. Apply
the same thing in your own case ; your opinion that the
dream is nonsense probably signifies merely an inner resistance
to its interpretation. Do not let yourself be deterred." I
then proceeded to the interpretation.

" R. is my uncle." What does that mean. I have had

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 117

only one uncle, my uncle Joseph.* His story, to be sure, was
a sad one. He had yielded to the temptation, more than
thirty years before, of engaging in dealings which the law
punishes severely, and which on that occasion also it had
visited with punishment. My father, who thereupon became
grey from grief in a few days, always used to say that Uncle
Joseph was never a wicked man, but that he was indeed a
simpleton ; so he expressed himself. If, then, friend R. is
my uncle Joseph, that is equivalent to saying : " R. is a
simpleton." Hardly credible and very unpleasant ! But there
is that face which I see in the dream, with its long features
and its yellow beard. My uncle actually had such a face —
long and surrounded by a handsome blond beard. My friend
R. was quite dark, but when dark-haired persons begin to
grow grey, they pay for the glory of their youthful years.
Their black beard undergoes an unpleasant change of color,
each hair separately ; first it becomes reddish brown, then
yellowish brown, and then at last definitely grey. The beard
of my friend R. is now in this stage, as is my own moreover, a
fact which I notice with regret. The face which I see in the
dream is at once that of my friend R. and that of my uncle.
It is like a composite photograph of Galton, who, in order
to emphasise family resemblances, had several faces, photo-
graphed on the same plate. No doubt is thus possible, I
am really of the opinion that my friend R. is a simpleton —
like my uncle Joseph.

I have still no idea for what purpose I have constructed
this relationship, to which I must unconditionally object. But it
is not a very far-reaching one, for my uncle was a criminal,
my friend R. is innocent — perhaps with the exception of
having been punished for knocking down an apprentice with
his bicycle. Could I mean this offence ? That would be
making ridiculous comparisons. Here I recollect another
conversation which I had with another colleague, N., and
indeed upon the same subject. I met N. on the street. He
likewise has been nominated for a professorship, and having

* It is remarkable how my memory narrows here for the purposes of
analysis — while I am awake. I have known five of my uncles, and have
loved and honoured one of them. But at the moment when I overcame my
resistance to the interpretation of the dream I said to myself, " I have only
one uncle, the one who is intended in the dream."

118 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

heard of my being honoured, congratulated me upon it. I
declined emphatically, saying, " You are the last man to make
a joke like this, because you have experienced what the nomi-
nation is worth in your own case." Thereupon he said, though
probably not in earnest, " You cannot be sure about that.
Against me there is a very particular objection. Don't you
know that a woman once entered a legal complaint against
me ? I need not assure you that an inquiry was made ; it
was a mean attempt at blackmail, and it was all I could do
to save the plaintiff herself from punishment. But perhaps
the affair will be pressed against me at the office in order that
I may not be appointed. You, however, are above reproach."
Here I have come upon a criminal, and at the same time upon
the interpretation and trend of the dream. My uncle Joseph
represents for me both colleagues who have not been appointed
to the professorship, the one as a simpleton, the other as a
criminal. I also know now for what purpose I need this re-
presentation. If considerations of creed are a determining
factor in the postponement of the appointment of my friends,
then my own appointment is also put in question : but if I
can refer the rejection of the two friends to other causes, which
do not apply to my case, my hope remains undisturbed. This
is the procedure of my dream ; it makes the one, R., a
simpleton, the other, N., a criminal ; since, however, I am
neither the one nor the other, our community of interest is
destroyed, I have a right to enjoy the expectation of being
appointed a professor, and have escaped the painful applica-
tion to my own case of the information which the high official
has given to R.

I must occupy myself still further with the interpretation
of this dream. For my feelings it is not yet sufficiently cleared
up. I am still disquieted by the ease with which I degrade
two respected colleagues for the purpose of clearing the way
to the professorship for myself. My dissatisfaction with
my procedure has indeed diminished since I have learnt to
evaluate statements made in dreams. I would argue against
anyone who urged that I really consider R. a simpleton, and
that I do not credit N.'s account of the blackmail affair. I
do not believe either that Irma has been made seriously ill by
an injection given her by Otto with a preparation of propyl.

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 119

Here, as before, it is only the wish that the case may be as the
dream expresses it. The statement in which my wish is realised
sounds less absurd in the second dream than in the first ; it is
made here with a more skilful utilisation of facts as points of
attachment, something like a well-constructed slander, where
" there is something in it." For my friend R. had at that
time the vote of a professor from the department against him,
and my friend N. had himself unsuspectingly furnished me
with the material for slander. Nevertheless, I repeat, the
dream seems to me to require further elucidation.

I remember now that the dream contains still another
portion which so far our interpretation has not taken into
account. After it occurs to me that my friend R. is my uncle,
I feel great affection for him. To whom does this feeling
belong ? For my uncle Joseph, of course, I have never had
any feelings of affection. For years my friend R. has been
beloved and dear to me ; but if I were to go to him and ex-
press my feelings for him in terms which came anywhere near
corresponding to the degree of affection in the dream, he
would doubtless be surprised. My affection for him seems
untrue and exaggerated, something like my opinion of his
psychic qualities, which I express by fusing his personality
with that of my uncle ; but it is exaggerated in an opposite
sense. But now a new state of affairs becomes evident to me.
The affection in the dream does not belong to the hidden
content, to the thoughts behind the dream ; it stands in
opposition to this content ; it is calculated to hide the informa-
tion which interpretation may bring. Probably this is its
very purpose. I recall with what resistance I applied myself
to the work of interpretation, how long I tried to postpone it,
and how I declared the dream to be sheer nonsense. I know
from my psychoanalytical treatments how such condemna-
tion is to be interpreted. It has no value as affording in-
formation, but only as the registration of an affect. If my
little daughter does not like an apple which is offered her, she
asserts that the apple has a bitter taste, without even having
tasted it. If my patients act like the little girl, I know that
it is a question of a notion which they want to suppress. The
same applies to my dream. I do not want to interpret it
because it contains something to which I object. After the

120 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

interpretation of the dream has been completed, I find out
what it was I objected to ; it was the assertion that R. is a
simpleton. I may refer the affection which I feel for R. not
to the hidden dream thoughts, but rather to this unwillingness
of mine. If my dream as compared with its hidden content
is disfigured at this point, and is disfigured, moreover, into
something opposite, then the apparent affection in the dream
serves the purpose of disfigurement ; or, in other words, the
disfigurement is here shown to be intended : it is a means of
dissimulation. My dream thoughts contain an unfavourable
reference to R. ; in order that I may not become aware of it,
its opposite, a feeling of affection for him, makes its way into
the dream.

The fact here recognised might be of universal applica-
bility. As the examples in Section III. have shown, there are
dreams which are undisguised wish-fulfilments. Wherever
a wish-fulfilment is unrecognisable and concealed, there must
be present a feeling of repulsion towards this wish, and in
consequence of this repulsion the wish is unable to gain ex-
pression except in a disfigured state. I shall try to find a case
in social life which is parallel to this occurrence in the inner
psychic life. Where in social life can a similar disfigurement
of a psychic act be found ? Only where two persons are in
question, one of whom possesses a certain power, while the
other must have a certain consideration for this power. This
second person will then disfigure his psychic actions, or, as
we may say, he will dissimulate. The politeness which I
practise every day is largely dissimulation of this kind. If I
interpret my dreams for the benefit of the reader I am forced
to make such distortions. The poet also complains about such
disfigurement :

" You may not tell the best that you know to the youngsters."

The political writer who has unpleasant truths to tell to
the government finds himself in the same position. If he
tells them without reserve, the government will suppress
them — subsequently in case of a verbal expression of opinion,
preventatively, if they are to be published in print. The
writer must fear censure ; he therefore modifies and disfigures
the expression of his opinion. He finds himself compelled,

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 121

according to the sensitiveness of . this censure, either to re-
strain himself from certain particular forms of attack or to
speak in allusion instead of direct designations. Or he must
disguise his objectionable statement in a garb that seems
harmless. He may, for instance, tell of an occurrence between
two mandarins in the Orient, while he has the officials of his
own country in view. The stricter the domination of the
censor, the more extensive becomes the disguise, and often
the more humorous the means employed to put the reader
back on the track of the real meaning.

The correspondence between the phenomena of the censor
and those of dream distortion, which may be traced in detail,
justifies us in assuming similar conditions for both. We
should then assume in each human being, as the primary
cause of dream formation, two psychic forces (streams, systems),
of which one constitutes the wish expressed by the dream,
while the other acts as a censor upon this dream wish, and by
means of this censoring forces a distortion of its expression.
The only question is as to the basis of the authority of this
second instance * by virtue of which it may exercise its censor-
ship. If we remember that the hidden dream thoughts are
not conscious before analysis, but that the apparent dream
content is remembered as conscious, we easily reach the
assumption that admittance to consciousness is the privilege
of the second instance. Nothing can reach consciousness
from the first system which has not first passed the second
instance, and the second instance lets nothing pass without
exercising its rights and forcing such alterations upon the
candidate for admission to consciousness as are pleasant to
itself. We are here forming a very definite conception of the
" essence " of consciousness ; for us the state of becoming
conscious is a particular psychic act, different from and
independent of becoming fixed or of being conceived, and
consciousness appears to us as an organ of sense, which per-
ceives a content presented from another source. It may be
shown that psychopathology cannot possibly dispense with
these fundamental assumptions. We may reserve a more
thorough examination of these for a later time.

* The word is here used in the original Latin sense instantia, meaning
energy, continuance or persistence in doing. (Translator.)

122 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

If I keep in mind the idea of the two psychic instances and
their relations to consciousness, I find in the sphere of politics
a very exact analogy for the extraordinary affection which I
feel for my friend R., who suffers such degradation in the
course of the dream interpretation. I turn my attention to
a political state in which a ruler, jealous of his rights, and a
live public opinion are in conflict with each other. The people
are indignant against an official whom they hate, and demand
his dismissal ; and in order not to show that he is compelled
to respect the public wish, the autocrat will expressly confer
upon the official some great honour, for which there would
otherwise have been no occasion. Thus the second instance
referred to, which controls access to consciousness, honours
my friend R. with a profusion of extraordinary tenderness,
because the wish activities of the first system, in accordance
with a particular interest which they happen to be pursuing,
are inclined to put him down as a simpleton.*

Perhaps we shall now begin to suspect that dream inter-
pretation is capable of giving us hints about the structure
of our psychic apparatus which we have thus far expected in
vain from philosophy. We shall not, however, follow this
track, but return to our original problem as soon as we have
cleared up the subject of dream-disfigurement. The question
has arisen how dreams with disagreeable content can be
analysed as the fulfilments of wishes. We see now that this
is possible in case dream-disfigurement has taken place, in
case the disagreeable content serves only as a disguise for
what is wished. Keeping in mind our assumptions in regard
to the two psychic instances, we may now proceed to say :
disagreeable dreams, as a matter of fact, contain something

* Such hypocritical dreams are not unusual occurrences with me or
with others. While I am working up a certain scientific problem, I am
visited for many nights in rapid succession by a somewhat confusing dream
which has as its content reconciliation with a friend long ago dropped. After
three or four attempts, I finally succeeded in grasping the meaning of this
dream. It was in the nature of an encouragement to ^ive up the little con-
sideration still left for the person in question, to drop him completely, but it
disguised itself shamefacedly in the opposite feeling. I have reported a
"hypocritical oedipus dream" of a person, in which the hostile feelings and
the wishes of death of the dream thoughts were replaced by manifest tender-
ness. (" Typisches Beispiel eines verkappten Oedipustraumes," Zentralblatt
für Psychoanalyse, Bd. 1, Heft 1-11, 1910.) Another class of hypocritical
dreams will be reported in another place.

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 123

which is disagreeable to the second instance, but which at
the same time fulfils a wish of the first instance. They are
wish dreams in the sense that every dream originates in the
first instance, while the second instance acts towards the
dream only in a repelling, not in a creative manner. If we
limit ourselves to a consideration of what the second instance
contributes to the dream, we can never understand the dream.
If we do so, all the riddles which the authors have found in the
dream remain unsolved.

That the dream actually has a secret meaning, which turns
out to be the fulfilment of a wish, must be proved afresh for
every case by means of an analysis. I therefore select several
dreams which have painful contents and attempt an analysis
of them. They are partly dreams of hysterical subjects,
which require long preliminary statements, and now and then
also an examination of the psychic processes which occur in
hysteria. I cannot, however, avoid this added difficulty in
the exposition.

When I give a psychoneurotic patient analytical treatment,
dreams are always, as I have said, the subject of our dis-
cussion. It must, therefore, give him all the psychological
explanations through whose aid I myself have come to an
understanding of his symptoms, and here I undergo an un-
sparing criticism, which is perhaps not less keen than that I
must expect from my colleagues. Contradiction of the thesis
that all dreams are the fulfilments of wishes is raised by my
patients with perfect regularity. Here are several examples of
the dream material which is offered me to refute this position.

" You always tell me that the dream is a wish fulfilled,"
begins a clever lady patient. " Now I shall tell you a dream
in which the content is quite the opposite, in which a wish of
mine is not fulfilled. How do you reconcile that with your
theory ? The dream is as follows : —

" / want to give a supper, but having nothing at hand except
some smoked salmon, I think of going marketing, but I remember
that it is Sunday afternoon, when all the shops are closed. I
next try to telephone to some caterers, but the telephone is out of
order. Thus I must resign my wish to give a supper."

I answer, of course, that only the analysis can decide the
meaning of this dream, although I admit that at first sight

124 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

it seems sensible and coherent, and looks like the opposite of
a wish-fulfilment. " But what occurrence has given rise to
this dream ? " I ask. " You know that the stimulus for a
dream always lies among the experiences of the preceding
day."

Analysis. — The husband of the patient, an upright and
conscientious wholesale butcher, had told her the day before
that he is growing too fat, and that he must, therefore, begin
treatment for obesity. He was going to get up early, take
exercise, keep to a strict diet, and above all accept no more
invitations to suppers. She proceeds laughingly to relate
how her husband at an inn table had made the acquaintance
of an artist, who insisted upon painting his portrait because
he, the painter, had never found such an expressive head.
But her husband had answered in his rough way, that he was
very thankful for the honour, but that he was quite convinced
that a portion of the backside of a pretty young girl would
please the artist better than his whole face.* She said that
she was at the time very much in love with her husband, and
teased him a good deal. She had also asked him not to send
her any caviare. What does that mean ?

As a matter of fact, she had wanted for a long time to eat
a caviare sandwich every forenoon, but had grudged herself
the expense. Of course, she would at once get the caviare
from her husband, as soon as she asked him for it. But she
had begged him, on the contrary, not to send her the caviare,
in order that she might tease him about it longer.

This explanation seems far-fetched to me. Unadmitted
motives are in the habit of hiding behind such unsatisfactory
explanations. We are reminded of subjects hypnotised by
Bernheim, who carried out a posthypnotic order, and who, upon
being asked for their motives, instead of answering : "I do
not know why I did that," had to invent a reason that was
obviously inadequate. Something similar is probably the
case with the caviare of my patient. I see that she is com-
pelled to create an unfulfilled wish in life. Her dream also
shows the reproduction of the wish as accomplished. But why
does she need an unfulfilled wish ?

* To sit for the painter. Goethe : " And if he has no backside, how can
the nobleman sit ? "

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 125

The ideas so far produced are insufficient for the inter-
pretation of the dream. I beg for more. After a short pause,
which corresponds to the overcoming of a resistance, she
reports further that the day before she had made a visit to a
friend, of whom she is really jealous, because her husband is
always praising this woman so much. Fortunately, this
friend is very lean and thin, and her husband likes well-rounded
figures. Now of what did this lean friend speak ? Naturally
of her wish to become somewhat stouter. She also asked my
patient : " When are you going to invite us again ? You
always have such a good table."

Now the meaning of the dream is clear. I may say to the
patient : " It is just as though you had thought at the time
of the request : ' Of course, I'll invite you, so you can eat
yourself fat at my house and become still more pleasing to
my husband. I would rather give no more suppers.' The
dream then tells you that you cannot give a supper, thereby
fulfilling your wish not to contribute anything to the rounding
out of your friend's figure. The resolution of your husband
to refuse invitations to supper for the sake of getting thin
teaches you that one grows fat on the things served in com-
pany." Now only some conversation is necessary to confirm
the solution. The smoked salmon in the dream has not yet
been traced. " How did the salmon mentioned in the dream
occur to you ? " " Smoked salmon is the favourite dish of
this friend," she answered. I happen to know the lady, and
may corroborate this by saying that she grudges herself the
salmon just as much as my patient grudges herself the caviare.

The dream admits of still another and more exact inter-
pretation, which is necessitated only by a subordinate circum-
stance. The two interpretations do not contradict one
another, but rather cover each other and furnish a neat
example of the usual ambiguity of dreams as well as of all
other psychopathological formations. We have seen that at
the same time that she dreams of the denial of the wish, the
patient is in reality occupied in securing an unfulfilled wish
(the caviare sandwiches). Her friend, too, had expressed a
wish, namely, to get fatter, and it would not surprise us if
our lady had dreamt that the wish of the friend was not being
fulfilled. For it is her own wish that a wish of her friend's —

126 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

for increase in weight — should not be fulfilled. Instead of
this, however, she dreams that one of her own wishes is not
fulfilled. The dream becomes capable of a new interpretation,
if in the dream she does not intend herself, but her friend, if
she has put herself in the place of her friend, or, as we may
say, has identified herself with her friend.

I think she has actually done this, and as a sign of this
identification she has created an unfulfilled wish in reality.
But what is the meaning of this hysterical identification ?
To clear this up a thorough exposition is necessary. Identi-
fication is a highly important factor in the mechanism of
hysterical symptoms ; by this means patients are enabled
in their symptoms to represent not merely their own experi-
ences, but the experiences of a great number of other persons,
and can suffer, as it were, for a whole mass of people, and fill
all the parts of a drama by means of their own personalities
alone. It will here be objected that this is well-known
hysterical imitation, the ability of hysteric subjects to copy all
the symptoms which impress them when they occur in others,
as though their pity were stimulated to the point of repro-
duction. But this only indicates the way in which the psychic
process is discharged in hysterical imitation ; the way in which
a psychic act proceeds and the act itself are two different
things. The latter is slightly more complicated than one is
apt to imagine the imitation of hysterical subjects to be : it
corresponds to an unconscious concluded process, as an
example will show. The physician who has a female patient
with a particular kind of twitching, lodged in the company of
other patients in the same room of the hospital, is not surprised
when some morning he learns that this peculiar hysterical attack
has found imitations. He simply says to himself : The others
have seen her and have done likewise : that is psychic infection.
Yes, but psychic infection proceeds in somewhat the following
manner : As a rule, patients know more about one another
than the physician knows about each of them, and they are
concerned about each other when the visit of the doctor is
over. Some of them have an attack to-day : soon it is known
among the rest that a letter from home, a return of love-
sickness or the like, is the cause of it. Their sympathy is aroused,
and the following syllogism, which does not reach conscious-

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 127

ness, is completed in them : " If it is possible to have this kind
of an attack from such causes, I too may have this kind of an
attack, for I have the same reasons." If this were a cycle
capable of becoming conscious, it would perhaps express
itself in fear of getting the same attack ; but it takes place
in another psychic sphere, and, therefore, ends in the realisa-
tion of the dreaded symptom. Identification is therefore
not a simple imitation, but a sympathy based upon the same
etiological claim ; it expresses an " as though," and refers to
some common quality which has remained in the unconscious.

Identification is most often used in hysteria to express
sexual community. An hysterical woman identifies herself
most readily — although not exclusively — with persons with
whom she has had sexual relations, or who have sexual inter-
course with the same persons as herself. Language takes
such a conception into consideration : two lovers are "one."
In the hysterical phantasy, as well as in the dream, it is suffi-
cient for the identification if one thinks of sexual relations,
whether or not they become real. The patient, then, only
follows the rules of the hysterical thought processes when she
gives expression to her jealousy of her friend (which, moreover,
she herself admits to be unjustified, in that she puts herself in
her place and identifies herself with her by creating a symptom
— the denied wish). I might further clarify the process speci-
fically as follows : She puts herself in the place of her friend
in the dream, because her friend has taken her own place in
relation to her husband, and because she would like to take
her friend's place in the esteem of her husband.*

The contradiction to my theory of dreams in the case of
another female patient, the most witty among all my dreamers,
was solved in a simpler manner, although according to the
scheme that the non-fulfilment of one wish signifies the fulfil-
ment of another. I had one day explained to her that the
dream is a wish-fulfilment. The next day she brought me a
dream to the effect that she was travelling with her mother-in-

* I myself regret the introduction of such passages from the psycho-
pathology of hysteria, which, because of their fragmentary representation
and of being torn from all connection with the subject, cannot have a very
enlightening influence. If these passages are capable of throwing light upon
the intimate relations between the dream and the psychoneuroses, they have
served the purpose for which I have taken them up.

128 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

law to their common summer resort. Now I knew that she
had struggled violently against spending the summer in the
neighbourhood of her mother-in-law. I also knew that she had
luckily avoided her mother-in-law by renting an estate in a
far-distant country resort. Now the dream reversed this
wished-for solution ; was not this in the flattest contradiction
to my theory of wish -fulfilment in the dream ? Certainly, it
was only necessary to draw the inferences from this dream in
order to get at its interpretation. According to this dream, I
was in the wrong. It was thus her wish that I should be in the
wrong, and this wish the dream showed her as fulfilled. But the
wish that I should be in the wrong, which was fulfilled in the
theme of the country home, referred to a more serious matter.
At that time I had made up my mind, from the material
furnished by her analysis, that something of significance for her
illness must have occurred at a certain time in her life. She
had denied it because it was not present in her memory. We
soon came to see that I was in the right. Her wish that I
should be in the wrong, which is transformed into the dream, thus
corresponded to the justifiable wish that those things, which at
the time had only been suspected, had never occurred at all.

Without an analysis, and merely by means of an assumption,
I took the liberty of interpreting a little occurrence in the case
of a friend, who had been my colleague through the eight
classes of the Gymnasium. He once heard a lecture of mine
delivered to a small assemblage, on the novel subject of the
dream as the fulfilment of a wish. He went home, dreamt
that he had lost all his suits — he was a lawyer — and then com-
plained to me about it. I took refuge in the evasion : " One
can't win all one's suits," but I thought to myself : " If for
eight years I sat as Primus on the first bench, while he moved
around somewhere in the middle of the class, may he not
naturally have had a wish from his boyhood days that I, too,
might for once completely disgrace myself ? "

In the same way another dream of a more gloomy character
was offered me by a female patient as a contradiction to my
theory of the wish-dream. The patient, a young girl, began
as follows : " You remember that my sister has now only one
boy, Charles : she lost the elder one, Otto, while I was still at
her house. Otto was my favourite ; it was I who really

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 129

brought him up. I like the other little fellow, too, but of
course not nearly as much as the dead one. Now I dreamt
last night that / saw Charles lying dead before me. He was
lying in his little coffin, his hands folded : there were candles
all about, and, in short, it was just like the time of little Otto's
death, which shocked me so profoundly. Now tell me, what
does this mean ? You know me : am I really bad enough to
wish my sister to lose the only child she has left ? Or does the
dream mean that I wish Charles to be dead rather than Otto,
whom I like so much better ? "

I assured her that this interpretation was impossible.
After some reflection I was able to give her the interpretation
of the dream, which I subsequently made her confirm.

Having become an orphan at an early age, the girl had
been brought up in the house of a much older sister, and had
met among the friends and visitors who came to the house, a
man who made a lasting impression upon her heart. It
looked for a time as though these barely expressed relations
were to end in marriage, but this happy culmination was
frustrated by the sister, whose motives have never found a
complete explanation. After the break, the man who was
loved by our patient avoided the house : she herself became
independent some time after little Otto's death, to whom her
affection had now turned. But she did not succeed in freeing
herself from the inclination for her sister's friend in which
she had become involved. Her pride commanded her to
avoid him ; but it was impossible for her to transfer her love
to the other suitors who presented themselves in order.
Whenever the man whom she loved, who was a member of
the literary profession, announced a lecture anywhere, she
was sure to be found in the audience ; she also seized every
other opportunity to see him from a distance unobserved by
him. I remembered that on the day before she had told me
that the Professor was going to a certain concert, and that
she was also going there, in order to enjoy the sight of him.
This was on the day of the dream ; and the concert was to
take place on the day on which she told me the dream. I
could now easily see the correct interpretation, and I asked
her whether she could think of any event which had happened
after the death of little Otto. She answered immediately :

130 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

" Certainly ; at that time the Professor returned after a long
absence, and I saw him once more beside the coffin of little
Otto." It was exactly as I had expected. I interpreted
the dream in the following manner : If now the other boy
were to die, the same thing would be repeated. You would
spend the day with your sister, the Professor would surely
come in order to offer condolence, and you would see him again
under the same circumstances as at that time. The dream
signifies nothing but this wish of yours to see him again,
against which you are fighting inwardly. I know that you
are carrying the ticket for to-day's concert in your bag. Your
dream is a dream of impatience ; it has anticipated the
meeting which is to take place to-day by several hours."

In order to disguise her wish she had obviously selected a
situation in which wishes of that sort are commonly sup-
pressed— a situation which is so filled with sorrow that love is
not thought of. And yet, it is very easily probable that even
in the actual situation at the bier of the second, more dearly
loved boy, which the dream copied faithfully, she had not
been able to suppress her feelings of affection for the visitor
whom she had missed for so long a time.

A different explanation was found in the case of a similar
dream of another female patient, who was distinguished in her
earlier years by her quick wit and her cheerful demeanour,
and who still showed these qualities at least in the notions
which occurred to her in the course of treatment. In con-
nection with a longer dream, it seemed to this lady that she
saw her fifteen-year-old daughter lying dead before her in a
box. She was strongly inclined to convert this dream-image
into an objection to the theory of wish-fulfilment, but herself
suspected that the detail of the box must lead to a different
conception of the dream.* In the course of the analysis it
occurred to her that on the evening before, the conversation
of the company had turned upon the English word " box,"
and upon the numerous translations of it into German, such
as box, theatre box, chest, box on the ear, &c. From other
components of the same dream it is now possible to add that
the lady had guessed the relationship between the English
word " box " and the German Büchse, and had then been
* Something like the smoked salmon in the dream of the deferred supper.

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 131

haunted by the memory that Büchse (as well as " box ") is

used in vulgar speech to designate the female genital organ.

It was therefore possible, making a certain allowance for her

notions on the subject of topographical anatomy, to assume

that the child in the box signified a child in the womb of the

mother. At this stage of the explanation she no longer denied

that the picture of the dream really corresponded to one of

her wishes. Like so many other young women, she was by

no means happy when she became pregnant, and admitted to

me more than once the wish that her child might die before its

birth ; in a fit of anger following a violent scene with her

husband she had even struck her abdomen with her fists in

order to hit the child within. The dead child was, therefore,

really the fulfilment of a wish, but a wish which had been

put aside for fifteen years, and it is not surprising that the

fulfilment of the wish was no longer recognised after so long

an interval. For there had been many changes meanwhile.

The group of dreams to which the two last mentioned

belong, having as content the death of beloved relatives, will

be considered again under the head of " Typical Dreams." I

shall there be able to show by new examples that in spite of

their undesirable content, all these dreams must be interpreted

as wish-fulfilments. For the following dream, which again

was told me in order to deter me from a hasty generalisation of

the theory of wishing in dreams, I am indebted, not to a

patient, but to an intelligent jurist of my acquaintance. " I

dream," my informant tells me, " that I am luallcing in front

of my house with a lady on my arm. Here a closed luagon is

waiting, a gentleman steps up to me, gives his authority as an

agent of the police, and demands that I should follow him. I

only ask for time in which to arrange my affairs. Can you

possibly suppose this is a wish of mine to be arrested ? "

" Of course not," I must admit. " Do you happen to know

upon what charge you were arrested ? " " Yes ; I believe for

infanticide." " Infanticide ? But you know that only a

mother can commit this crime upon her newly born child ? "

" That is true." * " And under what circumstances did you

* It often happens that a dream is told incompletely, and that a recollec-
tion of the omitted portions appears only in the course of the analysis.
These portions subsequently fitted in, regularly furnish the key to the
interpretation. Cf. below, about forgetting in dreams.

132 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

dream ; what happened on the evening before ? " "I would
rather not tell you that ; it is a delicate matter." " But I
must have it, otherwise we must forgo the interpretation of
the dream." " Well, then, I will tell you. I spent the night,
not at home, but at the house of a lady who means very much
to me. When we awoke in the morning, something again
passed between us. Then I went to sleep again, and dreamt
what I have told you." " The woman is married ? " " Yes."
" And you do not wish her to conceive a child ? " " No ; that
might betray us." " Then you do not practise normal
coitus ? " "I take the precaution to withdraw before ejacu-
lation." " Am I permitted to assume that you did this trick
several times during the night, and that in the morning you
were not quite sure whether you had succeeded ? " " That
might be the case." " Then your dream is the fulfilment of
a wish. By means of it you secure the assurance that you
have not begotten a child, or, what amounts to the same thing,
that you have killed a child. I can easily demonstrate the
connecting links. Do you remember, a few days ago we were
talking about the distress of matrimony (Ehenot), and about
the inconsistency of permitting the practice of coitus as long
as no impregnation takes place, while every delinquency after
the ovum and the semen meet and a foetus is formed is
punished as a crime ? In connection with this, we also re-
called the mediaeval controversy about the moment of time at
which the soul is really lodged in the foetus, since the concept
of murder becomes admissible only from that point on. Doubt-
less you also know the gruesome poem by Lenau, which puts
infanticide and the prevention of children on the same plane."
" Strangely enough, I had happened to think of Lenau during
the afternoon." " Another echo of your dream. And now
I shall demonstrate to you another subordinate wish-fulfilment
in your dream. You walk in front of your house with the lady
on your arm. So you take her home, instead of spending the
night at her house, as you do in actuality. The fact that the
wish-fulfilment, which is the essence of the dream, disguises
itself in such an unpleasant form, has perhaps more than one
reason. From my essay on the etiology of anxiety neuroses,
you will see that I note interrupted coitus as one of the factors
which cause the development of neurotic fear. It would be

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 133

consistent with this that if after repeated cohabitation of the
kind mentioned you should be left in an uncomfortable mood,
which now becomes an element in the composition of your
dream. You also make use of this unpleasant state of mind to
conceal the wish-fulfilment. Furthermore, the mention of
infanticide has not yet been explained. Why does this crime,
which is peculiar to females, occur to you ? " "I shall confess
to you that I was involved in such an affair years ago. Through
my fault a girl tried to protect herself from the consequences
of a liaison with me by securing an abortion. I had nothing
to do with carrying out the plan, but I was naturally for a
long time worried lest the affair might be discovered." " I
understand ; this recollection furnished a second reason why
the supposition that you had done your trick badly must have
been painful to you."

A young physician, who had heard this dream of my
colleague when it was told, must have felt implicated by it,
for he hastened to imitate it in a dream of his own, applying
its mode of thinking to another subject. The day before he
had handed in a declaration of his income, which was perfectly
honest, because he had little to declare. He dreamt that an
acquaintance of his came from a meeting of the tax commission
and informed him that all the other declarations of income
had passed uncontested, but that his own had awakened
general suspicion, and that he would be punished with a heavy
fine. The dream is a poorly-concealed fulfilment of the wish
to be known as a physician with a large income. It likewise
recalls the story of the young girl who was advised against
accepting her suitor because he was a man of quick temper
who would surely treat her to blows after they were married.
The answer of the girl was : "I wish he would strike me ! "
Her wish to be married is so strong that she takes into the
bargain the discomfort which is said to be connected with
matrimony, and which is predicted for her, and even raises it
to a wish.

If I group the very frequently occurring dreams of this
sort, which seem flatly to contradict my theory, in that they
contain the denial of a wish or some occurrence decidedly
unwished for, under the head of " counter wish-dreams," I
observe that they may all be referred to two principles, of

134 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

which one has not yet been mentioned, although it plays a
large part in the dreams of human beings. One of the motives
inspiring these dreams is the wish that I should appear in the
wrong. These dreams regularly occur in the course of my
treatment if the patient shows a resistance against me, and I
can count with a large degree of certainty upon causing such
a dream after I have once explained to the patient my theory
that the dream is a wish-fulfilment.* I may even expect this
to be the case in a dream merely in order to fulfil the wish
that I may appear in the wrong. The last dream which I
shall tell from those occurring in the course of treatment
again shows this very thing. A young girl who has struggled
hard to continue my treatment, against the will of her re-
latives and the authorities whom she has consulted, dreams as
follows : She is forbidden at home to come to me any more. She
then reminds me of the promise I made her to treat her for nothing
if necessary, and I say to her : "I can show no consideration in
money matters"

It is not at all easy in this case to demonstrate the fulfilment
of a wish, but in all cases of this kind there is a second problem,
the solution of which helps also to solve the first. Where
does she get the words which she puts into my mouth ? Of
course I have never told her anything like that, but one of
her brothers, the very one who has the greatest influence over
her, has been kind enough to make this remark about me. It
is then the purpose of the dream that this brother should
remain in the right ; and she does not try to justify this
brother merely in the dream ; it is her purpose in life and the
motive for her being ill.

The other motive for counter wish-dreams is so clear that
there is danger of overlooking it, as for some time happened in
my own case. In the sexual make-up of many people there is
a masochistic component, which has arisen through the con-
version of the aggressive, sadistic component into its opposite.
Such people are called " ideal " masochists, if they seek
pleasure not in the bodily pain which may be inflicted upon
them, but in humiliation and in chastisement of the soul.

* Similar "counter wish-dreams" have been repeatedly reported to me
within the last few years by my pupils who thus reacted to their first en-
counter with the "wish theory of the dream."

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 135

It is obvious that such persons can have counter wish-dreams
and disagreeable dreams, which, however, for them are nothing
but wish-fulfilments, affording satisfaction for their masochistic
inclinations. Here is such a dream. A young man, who has
in earlier years tormented his elder brother, towards whom he
was homosexually inclined, but who has undergone a complete
change of character, has the following dream, which consists
of three parts : (1) He is " insulted " by his brother. (2) Two
adults are caressing each other with homosexual intentions. (3)
Eis brother has sold the enterprise whose management the young
man reserved for his own future. He awakens from the last-
mentioned dream with the most unpleasant feelings, and yet
it is a masochistic wish-dream, which might be translated :
It would serve me quite right if my brother were to make that
sale against my interest, as a punishment for all the torments
which he has suffered at my hands.

I hope that the above discussion and examples will suffice —
until further objection can be raised — to make it seem credible
that even dreams with a painful content are to be analysed
as the fulfilments of wishes. Nor will it seem a matter of
chance that in the course of interpretation one always happens
upon subjects of which one does not like to speak or think.
The disagreeable sensation which such dreams arouse is
simply identical with the antipathy which endeavours — usually
with success — to restrain us from the treatment or discussion
of such subjects, and which must be overcome by all of us, if, in
spite of its unpleasantness, we find it necessary to take the
matter in hand. But this disagreeable sensation, which
occurs also in dreams, does not preclude the existence of a
wish ; everyone has wishes which he would not like to tell to
others, which he does not want to admit even to himself. We
are, on other grounds, justified in connecting the disagreeable
character of all these dreams with the fact of dream disfigure-
ment, and in concluding that these dreams are distorted, and
that the wish-fulfilment in them is disguised until recognition
is impossible for no other reason than that a repugnance, a
will to suppress, exists in relation to the subject-matter of
the dream or in relation to the wish which the dream creates.
Dream disfigurement, then, turns out in reality to be an act
of the censor. We shall take into consideration everything

136 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

which the analysis of disagreeable dreams has brought to
light if we reword our formula as follows : The dream is the
(disguised) fulfilment of a (suppressed, repressed) wish*

Now there still remain as a particular species of dreams
with painful content, dreams of anxiety, the inclusion of
which under dreams of wishing will find least acceptance with
the uninitiated. But I can settle the problem of anxiety
dreams in very short order ; for what they may reveal is not
a new aspect of the dream problem ; it is a question in their
case of understanding neurotic anxiety in general. The fear
which we experience in the dream is only seemingly explained
by the dream content. If we subject the content of the
dream to analysis, we become aware that the dream fear is no
more justified by the dream content than the fear in a phobia
is justified by the idea upon which the phobia depends. For
example, it is true that it is possible to fall out of a window,
and that some care must be exercised when one is near a
window, but it is inexplicable why the anxiety in the corre-
sponding phobia is so great, and why it follows its victims to
an extent so much greater than is warranted by its origin.
The same explanation, then, which applies to the phobia
applies also to the dream of anxiety. In both cases the
anxiety is only superficially attached to the idea which accom-
panies it and comes from another source.

On account of the intimate relation of dream fear to neurotic
fear, discussion of the former obliges me to refer to the latter.
In a little essay on " The Anxiety Neurosis," f I maintained
that neurotic fear has its origin in the sexual life, and corre-
sponds to a libido which has been turned away from its object
and has not succeeded in being applied. From this formula,
which has since proved its validity more and more clearly,
we may deduce the conclusion that the content of anxiety
dreams is of a sexual nature, the libido belonging to which

* We may mention here the simplification and modification of this
fundamental formula, propounded by Otto Rank : " On the basis and with
the help of repressed infantile sexual material, the dream regularly repre-
sents as fulfilled actual, and as a rule also erotic, wishes, in a disguised and
symbolic form." (" Ein Traum, der sich selbst deutet," Jahrbuch, v., Bleuler-
Freud, II. B., p. 519, 1910.)

f See Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses, p. 133, trans-
lated by A. A. Brill, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Monograph
Series.

DISTORTION IN DREAMS 137

content has been transformed into fear. Later on I shall
have opportunity to support this assertion by the analysis of
several dreams of neurotics. I shall have occasion to revert
to the determinations in anxiety dreams and their com-
patibility with the theory of wish-fulfilment when I again
attempt to approach the theory of dreams.

THE MATERIAL AND SOURCES OF DREAMS

After coming to realise from the analysis of the dream of
Irma's injection that the dream is the fulfilment of a wish,
our interest was next directed to ascertaining whether we had
thus discovered a universal characteristic of the dream, and
for the time being we put aside every other question which
may have been aroused in the course of that interpretation.
Now that we have reached the goal upon one of these paths,
we may turn back and select a new starting-point for our
excursions among the problems of the dream, even though we
may lose sight for a time of the theme of wish-fulfilment,
which has been as yet by no means exhaustively treated.

Now that we are able, by applying our process of inter-
pretation, to discover a latent dream content which far sur-
passes the manifest dream content in point of significance, we
are impelled to take up the individual dream problems afresh,
in order to see whether the riddles and contradictions which
seemed, when we had only the manifest content, beyond our
reach may not be solved for us satisfactorily.

The statements of the authors concerning the relation of
the dream to waking life, as well as concerning the source of
the dream material, have been given at length in the intro-
ductory chapter. We may recall that there are three pecu-
liarities of recollection in the dreams, which have been often
remarked but never explained :

1. That the dream distinctly prefers impressions of the
few days preceding (Robert,55 Strümpell,66 Hildebrandt,35 also
Weed-Hallam 88).

2. That it makes its selection according to principles other
than those of our waking memory, in that it recalls not what
is essential and important, but what is subordinate and dis-
regarded (c/. p. 13).

138

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 139

3. That it has at its disposal the earliest impressions of
our childhood, and brings to light details from this period of
life which again seem trivial to us, and which in waking life
were considered long ago forgotten.*

These peculiarities in the selection of the dream material
have of course been observed by the authors . in connection
with the manifest dream content.

(a) Recent and Indifferent Impressions in the Dream

If I now consult my own experience concerning the source
of the elements which appear in the dream, I must at once
express the opinion that some reference to the experiences of
the day which has most recently passed is to be found in every
dream. Whatever dream I take up, whether my own or
another's, this experience is always re-affirmed. Knowing
this fact, I can usually begin the work of interpretation by
trying to learn the experience of the previous day which has
stimulated the dream ; for many cases, indeed, this is the
quickest way. In the case of the two dreams which I have
subjected to close analysis in the preceding chapter (of Irma's
injection, and of my uncle with the yellow beard) the reference
to the previous day is so obvious that it needs no further
elucidation. But in order to show that this reference may be
regularly demonstrated, I shall examine a portion of my own
dream chronicle. I shall report the dreams only so far as is
necessary for the discovery of the dream stimulus in question.

1. I make a visit at a house where I am admitted only with
difficulty, &c, and meanwhile I keep a woman waiting for me.

Source. — A conversation in the evening with a female
relative to the effect that she would have to wait for some aid
which she demanded until, &c.

2. I have written a monograph about a certain (obscure)
species of plant.

Source. — I have seen in the show-window of a book store a
monograph upon the genus cyclamen.

* It is clear that the conception of Robert, that the dream is intended to
rid our memory of the useless impressions which it has received during the
day, is no longer tenable, if indifferent memories of childhood appear in the
dream with some degree of frequency. The conclusion would have to be
drawn that the dream ordinarily performs very inadequately the duty which
is prescribed for it.

140 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

3. I see two women on the street, mother and daughter, the
latter of whom is my patient.

Source. — A female patient who is under treatment has told
me what difficulties her mother puts in the way of her continu-
ing the treatment.

4. At the book store of S. and R. I subscribe to a periodical
which costs 20 florins annually.

Source. — During the day my wife has reminded me that I
still owe her 20 florins of her weekly allowance.

5. I receive a communication, in which I am treated as a
member, from the Social Democratic Committee.

Source. — I have received communications simultaneously from
the Liberal Committee on Elections and from the president of
the Humanitarian Society, of which I am really a member.

6. A man on a steep rock in the middle of the ocean, after
the manner of Boecklin.

Source. — Dreyfus on DeviVs Island ; at the same time news
from my relatives in England, &c.

The question might be raised, whether the dream is in-
variably connected with the events of the previous day, or
whether the reference may be extended to impressions from a
longer space of time in the immediate past. Probably this
matter cannot claim primary importance, but I should like
to decide in favour of the exclusive priority of the day before
the dream (the dream-day). As often as I thought I had
found a case where an impression of two or three days before
had been the source of the dream, I could convince myself,
after careful investigation, that this impression had been
remembered the day before, that a demonstrable reproduction
had been interpolated between the day of the event and the
time of the dream, and, furthermore, I was able to point out the
recent occasion upon which the recollection of the old im-
pression might have occurred. On the other hand, I was
unable to convince myself that a regular interval (H. Swoboda
calls the first one of this kind eighteen hours) of biological
significance occurs between the stimulating impression of the
day and its repetition in the dream.*

* As mentioned in the first chapter, p. 67, H. Swoboda applies broadly
to the psychic activity, the biological intervals of twenty-three and twenty-
ei^'ht days discovered by W. FlieflB, and lays especial emphasis upon the fact
that these periods are determinant for the appearance of the dream elements

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 141

I am, therefore, of the opinion that the stimulus for
every dream is to be found among those experiences " upon
which one has not yet slept " for a night.

Thus the impressions of the immediate past (with the
exception of the day before the night of the dream) stand in
no different relation to the dream content from those of times
which are as far removed in the past as you please. The dream
may select its material from all times of life, provided only,

in dreams. There would be no material change in dream interpretation if
this could be proven, but it would result in a new source for the origin of
the dream material. I have recently undertaken some examination of my
own dreams in order to test the applicability of the " Period Theory" to the
dream material, and I have selected for this purpose especially striking
elements of the dream content, whose origin could be definitely ascertained : —

I. — Dream from October 1-2, 1910

(Fragment) . . . Somewhere in Italy. Three daughters show me small
costly objects, as if in an antiquity shop. At the same time they sit down
on my lap. Of one of the pieces I remark : "Why, you got this from me."
I also see distinctly a small profile mask with the angular features of
Savonarola.

When have I last seen a picture of Savonarola ? According to my travel-
ling diary, I was in Florence on the fourth and fifth of September, and while
there thought of showing my travelling companion the plaster medallion of
the features of the fanatical monk in the Piazza Signoria, the same place
where he met his death by burning. I believe that I called his attention to
it at 3 a.m. To be sure, from this impression, until its return in the dream,
there was an interval of twenty-seven and one days — a " feminine period,"
according to Fliess. But, unfortunately for the demonstrative force of this
example, I must add that on the very day of the dream I was visited (the
first time after my return) by the able but melancholy-looking colleague
whom I had already years before nicknamed " Eabbi Savonarola." He
brought me a patient who had met with an accident on the Pottebba rail-
road, on which I had myself travelled eight days before, and my thoughts
were thus turned to my last Italian journey. The appearance in the dream
content of the striking element of Savonarola is explained by the visit of
my colleague on the day of the dream ; the twenty-eight day interval had no
significance in its origin.

II. — Dream from October 10-11

I am again studying chemistry in the University laboratory. Court
Councillor L. invites me to come to another place, and walks before me in
the corridor carrying in front of him in his uplifted hand a lamp or some
other instrument, and assuming a peculiar attitude, his head stretched for-
ward. We then come to an open space . . . (rest forgotten).

In this dream content, the most striking part is the manner in which
Court Councillor L. carries the lamp (or lupe) in front of him, his gaze
directed into the distance. I have not seen L. for many years, but I now
know that he is only a substitute for another greater person — for Archimedes
near the Arethusa fountain in Syracuse, who stands there exactly like L.
in the dream, holding the burning mirror and gazing at the besieging army

142 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that a chain of thought starting from one of the experiences
of the day of the dream (one of the " recent " impressions)
reaches back to these earlier ones.

But why this preference for recent impressions ? We shall
reach some conjectures on this point if we subject one of the
dreams already mentioned to a more exact analysis. I select
the dream about the monograph.

Content of the dream. — I have written a monograph upon a

of the Romans. When had I first (and last) seen this monument ? Accord-
ing to my notes, it was on the seventeenth day of September, in the evening,
and from this date to the dream there really passed 13 and 10, equals
23, days — according to Fliess, a " masculine period."

But I regret to say that here, too, this connection seems somewhat less
inevitable when we enter into the interpretation of this dream. The dream
was occasioned by the information, received on the day of the dream, that
the lecture-room in the clinic in which I was invited to deliver my lectures
had been changed to some other place. I took it for granted that the new
room was very inconveniently situated, and said to myself, it is as bad as not
having any lecture-room at my disposal. My thoughts must have then
taken me back to the time when I first became a docent, when I really had
no lecture-room, and when, in my efforts to get one, I met with little en-
couragement from the very influential gentlemen councillors and professors.
In my distress at that time, I appealed to L., who then had the title of dean,
and whom I considered kindly disposed. He promised to help me, but that
was all I ever heard from him. In the dream he is the Archimedes, who
gives me the Tr-qvTw and leads me into the other room. That neither the
desire for revenge nor the consciousness of one's own importance is absent
in this dream will be readily divined by those familiar with dream inter-
pretation. I must conclude, however, that without this motive for the
dream, Archimedes would hardly have got into the dream that night. I
am not certain whether the strong and still recent impression of the statue
in Syracuse did not also come to the surface at a different interval of time.

III.— -Dream from October 2-3, 1910.

(Fragment) . . . Something about Professor Oser, who himself prepared
the menu for me, which served to restore me to great peace of mind (rest
forgotten).

The dream was a reaction to the digestive disturbances of this day, which
made me consider asking one of my colleagues to arrange a diet for me.
That in the dream I selected for this purpose Professor Oser, who had died
in the summer, is based on the recent death (October 1) of another university
teacher, whom I highly revered. But when did Oser die, and when did I
hear of his death ? According to the newspaper notice, he died on the
22nd of August, but as I was at the time in Holland, whither my Vienna
newspapers were regularly sent nie, I must have read the obituary notice
on the 24th or 25th of August. This interval no longer corresponds to any
period. It takes in 7 and 30 and 2, eqimls 39, days, or perhaps 38 days. I
cannot recall having spoken or thought of Oser during this interval.

Such intervals as were not available for the "period theory" without
further elaboration, were shown from my dreams to be far more frequent
than the regular ones. As maintained in the text, the only thing constantly
found is the relation to an impression of the day of the dream itself.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 143

certain 'plant. The book lies before me, I am just turning over
a folded coloured 'plate. A dried specimen of the plant is bound
with every copy, as though from a herbarium.

Analysis. — In the forenoon I saw in the show-window of a
book store a book entitled, The Genus Cyclamen, apparently
a monograph on this plant.

The cyclamen is the favourite flower of my wife. I re-
proach myself for so seldom thinking to bring her flowers, as
she wishes. In connection with the theme " bringing flowers,"
I am reminded of a story which I recently told in a circle of
friends to prove my assertion that forgetting is very often the
purpose of the unconscious, and that in any case it warrants
a conclusion as to the secret disposition of the person who
forgets. A young woman who is accustomed to receive a
bunch of flowers from her husband on her birthday, misses
this token of affection on a festive occasion of this sort, and
thereupon bursts into tears. The husband comes up, and
is unable to account for her tears until she tells him, " To-day
is my birthday." He strikes his forehead and cries, " Why,
I had completely forgotten it," and wants to go out to get her
some flowers. But she is not to be consoled, for she sees in
the forgetfulness of her husband a proof that she does not
play the same part in his thoughts as formerly. This Mrs. L.
met my wife two days before, and told her that she was feeling
well, and asked about me. She was under my treatment years
ago.

Supplementary facts : I once actually wrote something
like a monograph on a plant, namely, an essay on the coca
plant, which drew the attention of K. Koller to the anassthetic
properties of cocaine. I had hinted at this use of the alkaloid
in my publication, but I was not sufficiently thorough to
pursue the matter further. This suggests that on the forenoon
of the day after the dream (for the interpretation of which I
did not find time until the evening) I had thought of cocaine
in a kind of day phantasy. In case I should ever be afflicted
with glaucoma, I was going to go to Berlin, and there have
myself operated upon, incognito, at the house of my Berlin
friend, by a physician whom he would recommend to me. The
surgeon, who would not know upon whom he was operating,
would boast as usual how easy these operations had become

144 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

since the introduction of cocaine ; I would not betray by a
single sign that I had had a share in making this discovery.
With this phantasy were connected thoughts of how difficult
it really is for a doctor to claim the medical services of a
colleague for his own person. I should be able to pay the
Berlin eye speciahst, who did not know me, like anyone else.
Only after recalling this day-dream do I realise that the
recollection of a definite experience is concealed behind it.
Shortly after Roller's discovery my father had, in fact, become
ill with glaucoma ; he was operated upon by my friend, the
eye specialist, Dr. Koenigstein. Dr. Koller attended to the
cocaine anaesthetisation, and thereupon made the remark
that all three of the persons who had shared in the intro-
duction of cocaine had been brought together on one case.

I now proceed to think of the time when I was last re-
minded of this affair about the cocaine. This was a few days
before, when I received a Festschrift, with whose publication
grateful scholars had commemorated the anniversary of their
teacher and laboratory director. Among the honours
ascribed to persons connected with the laboratory, I found a
notice to the effect that the discovery of the anaesthetic pro-
perties of cocaine had been made there by K. Koller. Now I
suddenly become aware that the dream is connected with an
experience of the previous evening. I had just accompanied
Dr. Koenigstein to his home, and had spoken to him about a
matter which strongly arouses my interest whenever it is
mentioned. While I was talking with him in the vestibule,
Professor Gärtner and his young wife came up. I could
not refrain from congratulating them both upon their healthy
appearance. Now Professor Gärtner is one of the authors
of the Festschrift of which I have just spoken, and may well
have recalled it to me. Likewise Mrs. L., whose birthday
disappointment I have referred to, had been mentioned, in
another connection, to be sure, in the conversation with Dr.
Koenigstein.

I shall now try to explain the other determinations of the
dream content. A dried specimen of the plant accompanies
the monograph as though it were a herbarium. A recollection
of the gymnasium (school) is connected with the herbarium.
The director of our gymnasium once called the scholars of the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 145

higher classes together in order to have them inspect and
clean the herbarium. Small worms had been found — book-
worms. The director did not seem to have much confidence
in my help, for he left only a few leaves for me. I know to this
day that there were crucifers on them. My interest in botany
was never very great. At my preliminary examination in
botany, I was required to identify a crucifer, and did not
recognise it. I would have fared badly if my theoretical
knowledge had not helped me out. Crucifers suggest com-
posites. The artichoke is really a composite, and the one
which I might call my favourite flower. My wife, who is
more thoughtful than I, often brings this favourite flower of
mine home from the market.

I see the monograph which I have written lying before me.
This, too, is not without its reference. The friend whom I
pictured wrote to me yesterday from Berlin : "I think a
great deal about your dream book, i" see it lying before me
finished, and am turning over its leaves." How I envied him
this prophetic power ! If I could only see it lying already
finished before me !

The folded Coloured Plate. — While I was a student of medicine,
I suffered much from a fondness for studying in monographs
exclusively. In spite of my limited means, I subscribed to a
number of the medical archives, in which the coloured plates
gave me much delight. I was proud of this inclination for
thoroughness. So, when I began to publish on my own account,
I had to draw the plates for my own treatises, and I remember
one of them turned out so badly that a kindly-disposed col-
league ridiculed me for it. This suggests, I don't know exactly
how, a very early memory from my youth. My father once
thought it would be a joke to hand over a book with coloured
plates (Description of a Journey in Persia) to me and my eldest
sister for destruction. This was hardly to be justified from
an educational point of view. I was at the time five years
old, and my sister three, and the picture of our blissfully tearing
this book to pieces (like an artichoke, I must add, leaf by leaf)
is almost the only one from this time of life which has remained
fresh in my memory. When I afterwards became a student,
I developed a distinct fondness for collecting and possessing
books (an analogy to the inclination for studying from mono-

K

146 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

graphs, a hobby which occurs in the dream thoughts with
reference to cyclamen and artichoke). I became a book- worm
(c/. herbarium). I have always referred this first passion of
my life — since I am engaging in retrospect — to this childhood
impression, or rather I have recognised in this childish scene
a " concealing recollection " for my subsequent love of books.*
Of course I also learned at an early age that our passions are
often our sorrows. When I was seventeen years old I had a
very respectable bill at the book store, and no means with
which to pay it, and my father would hardly accept the excuse
that my inclination had not been fixed on something worse.
But the mention of this later youthful experience immediately
brings me back to my conversation that evening with my
friend Dr. Koenigstein. For the talk on the evening of the
dream-day brought up the same old reproach that I am too
fond of my hobbies.

For reasons which do not belong here, I shall not continue
the interpretation of this dream, but shall simply indicate the
path which leads to it. In the course of the interpretation,
I was reminded of my conversation with Dr. Koenigstein, and
indeed of more than one portion of it. If I consider the
subjects touched upon in this conversation, the meaning of
the dream becomes clear to me. All the thought associations
which have been started, about the hobbies of my wife and of
myself, about the cocaine, about the difficulty of securing
medical treatment from one's colleagues, my preference for
monographic studies, and my neglect of certain subjects such
as botany — all this continues and connects with some branch
of this widely ramified conversation. The dream again takes
on the character of a justification, of a pleading for my rights,
like the first analysed dream of Irma's injection ; it even
continues the theme which that dream started, and discusses
it with the new subject matter which has accrued in the interval
between the two dreams. Even the apparently indifferent
manner of expression of the dream receives new importance.
The meaning is now : "I am indeed the man who has written
that valuable and successful treatise (on cocaine)," just as at
that time I asserted for my justification : "I am a thorough

* Cf. my essay, " Ueber Deckerinnerungen," in the Monatschrift für
Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 1899.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 147

and industrious student ; " in both cases, then : "I can afford
to do that." But I may dispense with the further inter-
pretation of the dream, because my only purpose in reporting
it was to examine the relation of the dream content to the
experience of the previous day which arouses it. As long as
I know only the manifest content of this dream, but one
relation to a day impression becomes obvious ; after I have
made the interpretation, a second source of the dream becomes
evident in another experience of the same day. The first of
these impressions to which the dream refers is an indifferent
one, a subordinate circumstance. I see a book in a shop
window whose title holds me for a moment, and whose contents
could hardly interest me. The second experience has great
psychic value ; I have talked earnestly with my friend, the
eye specialist, for about an hour, I have made allusions in
this conversation which must have touched both of us closely,
and which awakened memories revealing the most diverse
feelings of my inner self. Furthermore, this conversation was
broken off unfinished because some friends joined us. What,
now, is the relation of these two impressions of the day to each
other and to the dream which followed during the next night ?

I find in the manifest content merely an allusion to the
indifferent impression, and may thus reaffirm that the dream
preferably takes up into its content non-essential experiences.
In the dream interpretation, on the contrary, everything con-
verges upon an important event which is justified in demanding
attention. If I judge the dream in the only correct way,
according to the latent content which is brought to light in
the analysis, I have unawares come upon a new and important
fact. I see the notion that the dream deals only with the
worthless fragments of daily experience shattered ; I am
compelled also to contradict the assertion that our waking
psychic life is not continued in the dream, and that the dream
instead wastes psychic activity upon a trifling subject matter.
The opposite is true ; what has occupied our minds during the
day also dominates our dream thoughts, and we take pains to
dream only of such matters as have given us food for thought
during the day.

Perhaps the most obvious explanation for the fact that I
dream about some indifferent impression of the day, while

148 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the impression which is justifiably stirring furnishes the
occasion for dreaming, is that this again is a phenomenon of
the dream-disfigurement, which we have above traced to a
psychic power acting as a censor. The recollection of the
monograph on the genus cyclamen is employed as though it
were an allusion to the conversation with my friend, very
much as mention of the friend in the dream of the deferred
supper is represented by the allusion " smoked salmon." The
only question is, by what intermediate steps does the im-
pression of the monograph come to assume the relation of an
allusion to the conversation with the eye speciahst, since such
a relation is not immediately evident. In the example of the
deferred supper, the relation is set forth at the outset ; " smoked
salmon," as the favourite dish of the friend, belongs at once
to the series of associations which the person of the friend would
call up in the lady who is dreaming. In our new example
we have two separated impressions, which seem at first glance
to have nothing in common except that they occur on the
same day. The monograph catches my attention in the
forenoon ; I take part in the conversation in the evening.
The answer supplied by the analysis is as follows : Such re-
lations between the two impressions do not at first exist, but
are established subsequently between the presentation content
of the one impression and the presentation content of the
other. I have recently emphasised the components in this
relation in the course of recording the analysis. With the
notion of the monograph on cyclamen I should probably
associate the idea that cyclamen is my wife's favourite flower
only under some outside influence, and this is perhaps the
further recollection of the bunch of flowers missed by Mrs. L.
I do not believe that these underlying thoughts would have
been sufficient to call forth a dream.

" There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this,"

as we read in Hamlet. But behold ! I am reminded in
the analysis that the name of the man who interrupted our
conversation was Gärtner (Gardener), and that I found his
wife in blooming health ; * I even remember now that one of

* Ger., blühend.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 149

my female patients, who bears the pretty name of Flora, was
for a time the main subject of our conversation. It must
have happened that I completed the connection between the
two events of the day, the indifferent and the exciting one, by
means of these links from the series of associations belonging
to the idea of botany. Other relations are then established,
that of cocaine, which can with perfect correctness form a go-
between connecting the person of Dr. Koenigstein with the
botanical monograph which I have written, and strengthen
the fusion of the two series of associations into one, so that now
a portion of the first experience may be used as an allusion to
the second.

I am prepared to find this explanation attacked as arbitrary
or artificial. What would have happened if Professor Gärtner
and his blooming wife had not come up, and if the patient
who was talked about had been called, not Flora, but Anna %
The answer is easy, however. If these thought-relations had
not been present, others would probably have been selected.
It is so easy to establish relations of this sort, as the joking
questions and conundrums with which we amuse ourselves
daily suffice to show. The range of wit is unlimited. To go a
step further : if it had been impossible to establish inter-
relations of sufficient abundance between the two impressions
of the day, the dream would simply have resulted differently ;
another of the indifferent impressions of the day, such as come
to us in multitudes and are forgotten, would have taken the
place of the monograph in the dream, would have secured a
connection with the content of the talk, and would have repre-
sented it in the dream. Since it was the impression of the
monograph and no other that had this fate, this impression
was probably the most suitable for the establishment of the
connection. One need not be astonished, like Lessing's
Hanschen Schlau, because " it is the rich people of the world
who possess the most money."

Still the psychological process by which, according to our
conception, the indifferent experience is substituted for the
psychologically important one, seems odd to us and open to
question. In a later chapter we shall undertake the task of
making this seemingly incorrect operation more intelligible.
We are here concerned only with consequences of this pro-

150 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

cedure, whose assumption we have been forced to make by
the regularly recurring experiences of dream analysis. But
the process seems to be that, in the course of those inter-
mediate steps, a displacement — let us say of the psychic accent
— has taken place, until ideas that are at first weakly charged
with intensity, by taking over the charge from ideas which
have a stronger initial intensity, reach a degree of strength,
which enables them to force their way into consciousness.
Such displacements do not at all surprise us when it is a
question of the bestowal of affects or of the motor actions in
general. The fact that the woman who has remained single
transfers her affection to animals, that the bachelor becomes a
passionate collector, that the soldier defends a scrap of coloured
cloth, his flag, with his life-blood, that in a love affair a momen-
tary clasping of hands brings bliss, or that in Othello a
lost handkerchief causes a burst of rage — all these are examples
of psychic displacement which seem unquestionable to us.
But if, in the same manner and according to the same funda-
mental principles, a decision is made as to what is to reach our
consciousness and what is to be withheld from it, that is to
say, what we are to think — this produces an impression of
morbidity, and we call it an error of thought if it occurs in
waking life. We may here anticipate the result of a dis-
cussion which will be undertaken later — namely, to the effect
that the psychic process which we have recognised as dream
displacement proves to be not a process morbidly disturbed,
but a process differing from the normal merely in being of a
more primitive nature.

We thus find in the fact that the dream content takes up
remnants of trivial experiences a manifestation of dream
disfigurement (by means of displacement), and we may recall
that we have recognised this dream disfigurement as the work
of a censor which controls the passage between two psychic
instances. We accordingly expect that dream analysis will
regularly reveal to us the genuine, significant source of
the dream in the life of the day, the recollection of which has
transferred its accent to some indifferent recollection. This
conception brings us into complete opposition to Robert's 55
theory, which thus becomes valueless for us. The fact which
Robert was trying to explain simply doesn't exist ; its assump-

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 151

tion is based upon a misunderstanding, upon the failure to
substitute the real meaning of the dream for its apparent
content. Further objection may be made to Robert's doctrine :
If it were really the duty of the dream, by means of a special
psychic activity, to rid our memory of the " slag " of the re-
collections of the day, our sleep would have to be more troubled
and employed in a more strained effort than we may suppose
it to be from our waking life. For the number of indifferent
impressions received during the day, against which we should
have to protect our memory, is obviously infinitely large ; the
night would not be long enough to accomplish the task. It is
very much more probable that the forgetting of indifferent
impressions takes place without any active interference on the
part of our psychic powers.

Still something cautions us against taking leave of Robert's
idea without further consideration. We have left unex-
plained the fact that one of the indifferent day-impressions —
one from the previous day indeed — regularly furnished a
contribution to the dream-content. Relations between this
impression and the real source of the dream do not always
exist from the beginning ; as we have seen, they are estab-
lished only subsequently, in the course of the dream-work,
as though in order to serve the purpose of the intended dis-
placement. There must, therefore, be some necessity to form
connections in this particular direction, of the recent, although
indifferent impression ; the latter must have special fitness
for this purpose because of some property. Otherwise it
would be just as easy for the dream thoughts to transfer their
accent to some inessential member of their own series of
associations.

The following experiences will lead us to an explanation.
If a day has brought two or more experiences which are fitted
to stimulate a dream, then the dream fuses the mention of
both into a single whole ; it obeys an impulse to fashion a whole
out of them ; for instance : One summer afternoon I entered
a railroad compartment, in which I met two friends who were
unknown to each other. One of them was an influential col-
league, the other a member of a distinguished family, whose
physician I was ; I made the two gentlemen acquainted with
each other ; but during the long ride I was the go-between

152 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

in the conversation, so that I had to treat a subject of con-
versation now with the one, now with the other. I asked
my colleague to recommend a common friend who had just
begun his medical practice. He answered that he was con-
vinced of the young man's thoroughness, but that his plain
appearance would make his entrance into households of rank
difficult. I answered : " That is just why he needs recom-
mendation." Soon afterwards I asked the other fellow-
traveller about the health of his aunt — the mother of one of
my patients — who was at the time prostrated by a serious
illness. During the night after this journey I dreamt that the
young friend, for whom I had asked assistance, was in a
splendid salon, and was making a funeral oration to a select
company with the air of a man of the world — the oration being
upon the old lady (now dead for the purposes of the dream)
who was the aunt of the second fellow-traveller. (I confess
frankly that I had not been on good terms with this lady.)
My dream had thus found connections between the two im-
pressions of the day, and by means of them composed a unified
situation.

In view of many similar experiences, I am driven to conclude
that a kind of compulsion exists for the dream function,
forcing it to bring together in the dream all the available
sources of dream stimulation into a unified whole.* In a
subsequent chapter (on the dream function) we shall become
acquainted with this impulse for putting together as a part of
condensation another primary psychic process.

I shall now discuss the question whether the source from
which the dream originates, and to which our analysis leads,
must always be a recent (and significant) event, or whether
a subjective experience, that is to say, the recollection of a
psychologically valuable experience — a chain of thought — can
take the part of a dream stimulus. The answer, which results
most unequivocally from numerous analyses, is to the following
effect. The stimulus for the dream may be a subjective
occurrence, which has been made recent, as it were, by the

* The tendency of the dream function to fuse everything of interest
which is present into simultaneous treatment has already heen noticed by
several authors, for instance, by Delage,16 p. 41, Delbceuf,10 Rapprochement
Forest p. 23G.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 153

mental activity during the day. It will probably not be out of
place here to give a synopsis of various conditions which may
be recognised as sources of dreams.
The source of a dream may be :

(a) A recent and psychologically significant experience
which is directly represented in the dream.*

(b) Several recent, significant experiences, which are united
by the dream into a whole. f

(c) One or more recent and significant experiences, which
are represented in the dream by the mention of a contem-
porary but indifferent experience. J

(d) A subjective significant experience (a recollection, train
of thought), which is regularly represented in the dream by the
mention of a recent but indifferent impression. §

As may be seen, in dream interpretation the condition is
firmly adhered to throughout that each component of the
dream repeats a recent impression of the day. The element
which is destined to representation in the dream may either
belong to the presentations surrounding the actual dream
stimulus itself — and, furthermore, either as an essential or an
inessential element of the same — or it may originate in the
neighbourhood of an indifferent impression, which, through
associations more or less rich, has been brought into relation
with the thoughts surrounding the dream stimulus. The
apparent multiplicity of the conditions here is produced by
the alternative according to whether displacement has or has not
taken place, and we may note that this alternative serves
to explain the contrasts of the dream just as readily as the
ascending series from partially awake to fully awake brain
cells in the medical theory of the dream (c/. p. 64).

Concerning this series, it is further notable that the element
which is psychologically valuable, but not recent (a train of
thought, a recollection) may be replaced, for the purposes of
dream formation, by a recent, but psychologically indifferent,
element, if only these two conditions be observed : 1. That
the dream shall contain a reference to something which has

* The dream of Irma's injection ; the dream of the friend who is my
uncle.

t The dream of the funeral oration of the young physician.

% The dream of the botanical monograph.

§ The dreams of my patients during analysis are mostly of this kind.

154 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

been recently experienced ; 2. That the dream stimulus shall
remain a psychologically valuable train of thought. In a
single case (a) both conditions are fulfilled by the same im-
pression. If it be added that the same indifferent impressions
which are used for the dream, as long as they are recent, lose
this availability as soon as they become a day (or at most
several days) older, the assumption must be made that the
very freshness of an impression gives it a certain psychological
value for dream formation, which is somewhat equivalent to
the value of emotionally accentuated memories or trains of
thought. We shall be able to see the basis of this value of
recent impressions for dream formation only with the help
of certain psychological considerations which will appear
later.*

Incidentally our attention is called to the fact that im-
portant changes in the material comprised by our ideas and
our memory may be brought about unconsciously and at
night. The injunction that one should sleep for a night upon
any affair before making a final decision about it is obviously
fully justified. But we see that at this point we have pro-
ceeded from the psychology of dreaming to that of sleep, a
step for which there will often be occasion.

Now there arises an objection threatening to invalidate the
conclusions we have just reached. If indifferent impressions
oan get into the dream only in case they are recent, how does
it happen that we find also in the dream content elements
from earlier periods in our fives, which at the time when they
were recent possessed, as Strümpell expresses it, no psychic
value, which, therefore, ought to have been forgotten long ago,
and which, therefore, are neither fresh nor psychologically
significant ?

This objection can be fully met if we rely upon the results
furnished by psychoanalysis of neurotics. The solution is as
follows : The process of displacement which substitutes in-
different material for that having psychic significance (for
dreaming as well as for thinking) has already taken place in
those earlier periods of life, and has since become fixed in the
memory. Those elements which were originally indifferent
are in fact no longer so, since they have acquired the value of
* Of. Chap. VII. upon " Transference."

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 155

psychologically significant material. That which has actually
remained indifferent can never be reproduced in the dream.

It will be correct to suppose from the foregoing discussion
that I maintain that there are no indifferent dream stimuli,
and that, accordingly, there are no harmless dreams. This I
believe to be the case, thoroughly and exclusively, allowance
being made for the dreams of children and perhaps for short
dream reactions to nocturnal sensations. Whatever one may
dream, it is either manifestly recognisable as psychically
significant or it is disfigured, and can be judged correctly only
after a complete interpretation, when, as before, it may be
recognised as possessing psychic significance. The dream
never concerns itself with trifles ; we do not allow ourselves
to be disturbed in our sleep by matters of slight importance.
Dreams which are apparently harmless turn out to be sinister
if one takes pains to interpret them ; if I may be permitted
the expression, they all have " the mark of the beast." As this
is another point on which I may expect opposition, and as
I am glad of an opportunity to show dream - disfigurement
at work, I shall here subject a number of dreams from my
collection to analysis.

1. An intelligent and refined young lady, who, however,
in conduct, belongs to the class we call reserved, to the " still
waters," relates the following dream : —

Her husband asks : " Should not the piano be tuned ? "
She answers : "It won't pay ; the hammers would have to be
newly buffed too." This repeats an actual event of the previous
day. Her husband had asked such a question, and she had
answered something similar. But what is the significance of
her dreaming it 1 She tells of the piano, indeed, that it is a
disgusting old box which has a bad tone ; it is one of the tilings
which her husband had before they were married,* &c, but
the key to the true solution lies in the phrase : It won't pay.
This originated in a visit made the day before to a lady friend.
Here she was asked to take off her coat, but she declined,
saying, " It won't pay. I must go in a moment." At this
point, I recall that during yesterday's analysis she suddenly
took hold of her coat, a button of which had opened. It is,

* Substitution of the opposite, as will become clear to us after inter-
pretation.

156 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

therefore, as if she had said, " Please don't look in this direc-
tion ; it won't pay." Thus " box " develops into " chest," or
breast-box (" bust "), and the interpretation of the dream
leads directly to a time in her bodily development when she
was dissatisfied with her shape. It also leads to earlier periods,
if we take into consideration " disgusting " and " bad tone,"
and remember how often in allusions and in dreams the two
small hemispheres of the feminine body take the place — as a
substitute and as an antithesis — of the large ones.

II. I may interrupt this dream to insert a brief harmless
dream of a young man. He dreamt that he was putting on his
winter overcoat again, which was terrible. The occasion for this
dream is apparently the cold weather, which has recently set
in again. On more careful examination we note that the two
short portions of the dream do not fit together well, for what
is there " terrible " about wearing a heavy or thick coat in
the cold ? Unfortunately for the harmlessness of this dream,
the first idea educed in analysis is the recollection that on the
previous day a lady had secretly admitted to him that her
last child owed its existence to the bursting of a condom.
He now reconstructs his thoughts in accordance with this
suggestion : A thin condom is dangerous, a thick one is bad.
The condom is an " overcoat " (Ueberzieher), for it is put over
something ; Ueberzieher is also the name given in German to a
thin overcoat. An experience like the one related by the lady
would indeed be " terrible " for an unmarried man. — We
may now return- to our other harmless dreamer.

III. She puts a candle into a candlestick ; but the candle is
broken, so that it does not stand straight. The girls at school say
she is clumsy ; the young lady replies that it is not her jault.

Here, too, there is an actual occasion for the dream ; the
day before she had actually put a candle into a candlestick ;
but this one was not broken. A transparent symbolism has
been employed here. The candle is an object which excites
the feminine genitals ; its being broken, so that it does not
stand straight, signifies impotence on the man's part (" it is
not her fault "). But does this young woman, carefully
brought up, and a stranger to all obscenity, know of this
application of the candle ? She happens to be able to tell how
she came by this information. While riding in a boat on the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 157

Rhine, another boat passes containing students who are singing
or rather yelling, with great delight : " When the Queen of
Sweden with closed shutters and the candles of Apollo. . ."

She does not hear or understand the last word. Her
husband is asked to give her the required explanation. These
verses are then replaced in the dream content by the harmless
recollection of a command which she once executed clumsily
at a girls' boarding school, this occurring by means of the
common features closed shutters. The connection between the
theme of onanism and that of impotence is clear enough.
" Apollo " in the latent dream content connects this dream
with an earlier one in which the virgin Pallas figured. All this
is obviously not harmless.

IV. Lest it may seem too easy a matter to draw con-
clusions from dreams concerning the dreamer's real circum-
stances, I add another dream coming from the same person
which likewise appears harmless. " / dreamt of doing some-
thing" she relates, " which I actually did during the day, that
is to say, I filled a little trunk so full of books that I had difficulty
in closing it. My dream was just like the actual occurrence'''
Here the person relating the dream herself attaches chief im-
portance to the correspondence between the dream and reality.
All such criticisms upon the dream and remarks about it,
although they have secured a place in waking thought, re-
gularly belong to the latent dream content, as later examples
will further demonstrate We are told, then, that what the
dream relates has actually taken place during the day. It
would take us too far afield to tell how we reach the idea of
using the English language to help us in the interpretation of
this dream. Suffice it to say that it is again a question of a
little box (cf. p. 130, the dream of the dead child in the box)
which has been filled so full that nothing more can go into it.
Nothing in the least sinister this time.

In all these " harmless " dreams the sexual factor as a
motive for the exercise of the censor receives striking pro-
minence. But this is a matter of primary importance, which
we must postpone.

(b) Infantile Experiences as the Source of Dreams

As the third of the peculiarities of the dream content, we

158 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

have cited from all the authors (except Robert) the fact that
impressions from the earliest times of our lives, which seem
not to be at the disposal of the waking memory, may appear
in the dream. It is, of course, difficult to judge how often or
how seldom this occurs, because the respective elements of the
dream are not recognised according to their origin after waking.
The proof that we are dealing with childhood impressions must
thus be reached objectively, and the conditions necessary for
this happen to coincide only in rare instances. The story is
told by A. Maury,48 as being particularly conclusive, of a man
who decided to visit his birthplace after twenty years' absence.
During the night before his departure, he dreams that he is in
an altogether strange district, and that he there meets a strange
man with whom he has a conversation. Having afterward
returned to his home, he was able to convince himself that
this strange district really existed in the neighbourhood of his
home town, and the strange man in the dream turned out to
be a friend of his dead father who lived there. Doubtless, a
conclusive proof that he had seen both the man and the dis-
trict in his childhood. The dream, moreover, is to be inter-
preted as a dream of impatience, like that of the girl who
carries her ticket for the concert of the evening in her pocket
(p. 110), of the child whose father had promised him an ex-
cursion to the Hameau, and the like. The motives explaining
why just this impression of childhood is reproduced for the
dreamer cannot, of course, be discovered without an analysis.
One of the attendants at my lectures, who boasted that his
dreams were very rarely subject to disfigurement, told me
that he had sometime before in a dream seen his former tutor
in bed with his nurse, who had been in the household until he
was eleven years old. The location of this scene does not
occur to him in the dream. As he was much interested, he
told the dream to his elder brother, who laughingly confirmed
its reality. The brother said he remembered the affair very
well, for he was at the time six years old. The lovers were in
the habit of making him, the elder boy, drunk with beer,
whenever circumstances were favourable for nocturnal re-
lations. The smaller child, at that time three years old — our
dreamer — who slept in the same room as the nurse, was not
considered an obstacle.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 159

In still another case it may be definitely ascertained, without
the aid of dream interpretation, that the dream contains
elements from childhood ; that is, if it be a so-called perennial
dream, which being first dreamt in childhood, later appears
again and again after adult age has been reached. I may add
a few examples of this sort to those already familiar, although
I have never made the acquaintance of such a perennial dream
in my own case. A physician in the thirties tells me that a
yellow lion, about which he can give the most detailed in-
formation, has often appeared in his dream-life from the
earliest period of his childhood to the present day. This lion,
known to him from his dreams, was one day discovered in
natura as a long-forgotten object made of porcelain, and on
that occasion the young man learned from his mother that
this object had been his favourite toy in early childhood, a fact
which he himself could no longer remember.

If we now turn from the manifest dream content to the
dream thoughts which are revealed only upon analysis, the
co-operation of childhood experiences may be found to exist
even in dreams whose content would not have led us to suspect
anything of the sort. I owe a particularly delightful and
instructive example of such a dream to my honoured colleague
of the " yellow hon." After reading Nansen's account of his
polar expedition, he dreamt that he was giving the bold ex-
plorer electrical treatment in an ice field for an ischaemia of
which the latter complained ! In the analysis of this dream,
he remembered a story of his childhood, without which the
dream remains entirely unintelligible. When he was a child,
three or four years old, he was listening attentively to a con-
versation of older people about trips of exploration, and
presently asked papa whether exploration was a severe illness.
He had apparently confused " trips " with " rips," and the
ridicule of his brothers and sisters prevented his ever forgetting
the humiliating experience.

The case is quite similar when, in the analysis of the dream
of the monograph on the genus cyclamen, I happen upon the
recollection, retained from childhood, that my father allowed
me to destroy a book embellished with coloured plates when I
was a little boy five years old. It will perhaps be doubted
whether this recollection actually took part in the composition

160 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of the dream content, and it will be intimated that the process
of analysis has subsequently established the connection. But
the abundance and intricacy of the ties of association vouch
for the truth of my explanation : cyclamen — favourite flower
— favourite dish — artichoke ; to pick to pieces like an arti-
choke, leaf by leaf (a phrase which at that time rang in our
ears ä propos of the dividing up of the Chinese Empire) —
herbarium — bookworm, whose favourite dish is books. I may
state further that the final meaning of the dream, which I
have not given here, has the most intimate connection with
the content of the childhood scene.

In another series of dreams we learn from analysis that the
wish itself, which has given rise to the dream, and whose
fulfilment the dream turns out to be, has originated in child-
hood— until one is astonished to find that the child with all its
impulses lives on in the dream.

I shall now continue the interpretation of a dream which has
already proved instructive — I refer to the dream in which
friend R. is my uncle (p. 116). We have carried its interpreta-
tion far enough for the wish-motive, of being appointed pro-
fessor, to assert itself tangibly ; and we have explained the
affection displayed in the dream for friend R. as a fiction of
opposition and spite against the aspersion of the two col-
leagues, who appear in the dream thoughts. The dream was
my own ; I may, therefore, continue the analysis by stating
that my feelings were not quite satisfied by the solution
reached. I know that my opinion of these colleagues who are
so badly treated in the dream thoughts would have been
expressed in quite different terms in waking life ; the potency
of the wish not to share their fate in the matter of appoint-
ment seemed to me too slight to account for the discrepancy
between my estimate in the dream and that of waking. If
my desire to be addressed by a new title proves so strong it
gives proof of a morbid ambition, which I did not know to
exist in me, and which I believe is far from my thoughts. I
do not know how others, who think they know me, would
judge me, for perhaps I have really been ambitious ; but if
this be true, my ambition has long since transferred itself to
other objects than the title and rank of assistant-professor.

Whence, then, the ambition which the dream has ascribed

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 161

to me ? Here I remember a story which I heard often in my
childhood, that at my birth an old peasant's wife had pro-
phesied to my happy mother (I was her first-born) that she had
given to the world a great man. Such prophecies must occur
very frequently ; there are so many mothers happy in ex-
pectation, and so many old peasant wives whose influence on
earth has waned, and who have therefore turned their eyes
towards the future. The prophetess was not likely to suffer
for it either. Might my hunger for greatness have originated
from this source ? But here I recollect an impression from the
later years of my childhood, which would serve still better as
an explanation. It was of an evening at an inn on the Prater,*
where my parents were accustomed to take me when I was
eleven or twelve years old. We noticed a man who went
from table to table and improvised verses upon any subject
that was given to him. I was sent to bring the poet to our
table and he showed himself thankful for the message. Before
asking for his subject he threw off a few rhymes about me, and
declared it probable, if he could trust his inspiration, that I
would one day become a " minister." I can still distinctly
remember the impression made by this second prophecy. It
was at the time of the election for the municipal ministry ; my
father had recently brought home pictures of those elected to
the ministry — Herbst, Giskra, Unger, Berger, and others —
and we had illuminated them in honour of these gentlemen.
There were even some Jews among them ; every industrious
Jewish schoolboy therefore had the making of a minister in
him. Even the fact that until shortly before my enrolment
in the University I wanted to study jurisprudence, and changed
my plans only at the last moment, must be connected with the
impressions of that time. A minister's career is under no
circumstances open to a medical man. And now for my
dream ! I begin to see that it transplants me from the sombre
present to the hopeful time of the municipal election, and
fulfils my wish of that time to the fullest extent. In treating
my two estimable and learned colleagues so badly, because
they are Jews, the one as a simpleton and the other as a
criminal — in doing this I act as though I were the minister of
education, I put myself in his place. What thorough revenge
* The Prater is the principal drive of Vienna. (Transl.)

L

162 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

I take upon his Excellency ! He refuses to appoint me pro-
fessor extraordinarius, and in return I put myself in his place
in the dream.

Another case establishes the fact that although the wish
which actuates the dream is a present one, it nevertheless draws
great intensification from childhood memories. I refer to a
series of dreams which are based upon the longing to go to
Rome. I suppose I shall still have to satisfy this longing by
means of dreams for a long time to come, because, at the time
of year which is at my disposal for travelling, a stay at Rome
is to be avoided on account of considerations of health.*
Thus I once dreamt of seeing the Tiber and the bridge of St.
Angelo from the window of a railroad compartment ; then
the train starts, and it occurs to me that I have never entered
the city at all. The view which I saw in the dream was modelled
after an engraving which I had noticed in passing the day
before in the parlour of one of my patients. On another
occasion some one is leading me upon a hill and showing me
Rome half enveloped in mist, and so far in the distance that
I am astonished at the distinctness of the view. The content
of this dream is too rich to be fully reported here. The motive,
" to see the promised land from afar," is easily recognisable in
it. The city is Lübeck, which I first saw in the mist ; the
original of the hill is the Gleichenberg. In a third dream, I am
at last in Rome, as the dream tells me. To my disappointment,
the scenery which I see is anything but urban. A little river
with black water, on one side of which are black rocks, on the
other large white flowers. I notice a certain Mr. Zucker (with
whom I am superficially acquainted), and make up my mind
to ask him to show me the ivay into the city. It is apparent that
I am trying in vain to see a city in the dream which I have
never seen in waking life. If I resolve the landscape into its
elements, the white flowers indicate Ravenna, which is known
to me, and which, for a time at least, deprived Rome of its
leading place as capital of Italy. In the swamps around
Ravenna we had seen the most beautiful water-lilies in the
middle of black pools of water ; the dream makes them grow
on meadows, like the narcissi of our own Aussee, because at

* I have lon<< since learned that it only requires a little courage to fulfil
even such unattainable wishes.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 163

Ravenna it was such tedious work to fetch them out of the
water. The black rock, so close to the water, vividly recalls
the valley of the Tepl at Karlsbad. " Karlsbad " now enables
me to account for the peculiar circumstance that I ask Mr.
Zucker the way. In the material of which the dream is com-
posed appear also two of those amusing Jewish anecdotes,
which conceal so much profound and often bitter worldly
wisdom, and which we are so fond of quoting in our conversa-
tion and letters. One is the story of the " constitution," and
tells how a poor Jew sneaks into the express train for Karlsbad
without a ticket, how he is caught and is treated more and
more unkindly at each call for tickets by the conductor, and
how he tells a friend, whom he meets at one of the stations
during his miserable journey, and who asks him where he is
travelling : " To Karlsbad, if my constitution will stand it."
Associated with this in memory is another story about a Jew
who is ignorant of French, and who has express instructions to
ask in Paris for the way to the Rue Richelieu. Paris was for
many years the object of my own longing, and I took the great
satisfaction with which I first set foot on the pavement in
Paris as a warrant that I should also attain the fulfilment of
other wishes. Asking for the way is again a direct allusion
to Rome, for of course all roads lead to Rome. Moreover,
the name Zucker (English, sugar) again points to Karlsbad,
whither we send all persons afflicted with the constitutional
disease, diabetes (Zuckerkrankheit, sugar-disease). The oc-
casion for this dream was the proposal of my Berlin friend
that we should meet in Prague at Easter. A further allusion
to sugar and diabetes was to be found in the matters which I
had to talk over with him.

A fourth dream, occurring shortly after the last one men-
tioned, brings me back to Rome. I see a street-corner before
me and am astonished to see so many German placards posted
there. On the day before I had written my friend with
prophetic vision that Prague would probably not be a comfort-
able resort for German travellers. The dream, therefore,
simultaneously expressed the wish to meet him at Rome
instead of at the Bohemian city, and a desire, which probably
originated during my student days, that the German language
might be accorded more tolerance in Prague. Besides I must

164 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

have understood the Czech language in the first three years of
my childhood, because I was born in a small village of Moravia,
inhabited by Slavs. A Czech nursery rhyme, which I heard
in my seventeenth year, became, without effort on my part, so
imprinted upon my memory that I can repeat it to this day,
although I have no idea of its meaning. There is then no lack
in these dreams also of manifold relations to impressions from
the first years of my life.

It was during my last journey to Italy, which, among other
places, took me past Lake Trasimenus, that I at last found
what re-enforcement my longing for the Eternal City had
received from the impressions of my youth ; this was after I
had seen the Tiber, and had turned back with painful emotions
when I was within eighty kilometers of Rome. I was just
broaching the plan of travelling to Naples via Rome the next
year, when this sentence, which I must have read in one of
our classical authors, occurred to me : " It is a question which
of the two paced up and down in his room the more im-
patiently after he had made the plan to go to Rome — Assistant-
Headmaster Winckelman or the great general Hannibal." I
myself had walked in Hannibal's footsteps ; like him I was
destined never to see Rome, and he too had gone to Campania
after the whole world had expected him in Rome. Hannibal,
with whom I had reached this point of similarity, had been
my favourite hero during my years at the Gymnasium ; like so
many boys of my age, I bestowed my sympathies during the
Punic war, not on the Romans, but on the Carthaginians.
Then, when I came finally to understand the consequences of
belonging to an alien race, and was forced by the anti-semitic
sentiment among my class-mates to assume a definite attitude,
the figure of the Semitic commander assumed still greater pro-
portions in my eyes. Hannibal and Rome symbolised for me
as a youth the antithesis between the tenaciousness of the
Jews and the organisation of the Catholic Church. The signi-
ficance for our emotional life which the anti-semitic movement
has since assumed helped to fix the thoughts and impressions
of that earlier time. Thus the wish to get to Rome has become
the cover and symbol in my dream-life for several warmly
cherished wishes, for the realisation of which one might work
with the perseverance and single-mindedness of the Punic

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 165

general, and whose fulfilment sometimes seems as little
favoured by fortune as the wish of Hannibal's life to enter
Rome.

And now for the first time I happen upon the youthful
experience which, even to-day, still manifests its power in all
these emotions and dreams. I may have been ten or twelve
years old when my father began to take me with him on his
walks, and to reveal to me his views about the things of this
world in his conversation. In this way he once told me, in
order to show into how much better times I had been born
than he, the following : " While I was a young man, I was
walking one Saturday on a street in the village where you
were born ; I was handsomely dressed and wore a new fur
cap. Along comes a Christian, who knocks my cap into the
mud with one blow and shouts : " Jew, get off the sidewalk."
" And what did you do ? " "I went into the street and picked
up the cap," was the calm answer. That did not seem heroic
on the part of the big strong man, who was leading me, a
little fellow, by the hand. I contrasted this situation, which
did not please me, with another more in harmony with my
feelings — the scene in which Hannibal's father, Hamilcar *
Barka made his boy swear at the domestic altar to take
vengeance on the Romans. Since that time Hannibal has
had a place in my phantasies.

I think I can follow my enthusiasm for the Carthaginian
general still further back into my childhood, so that possibly
we have here the transference of an already formed emotional
relation to a new vehicle. One of the first books which fell
into my childish hands, after I learned to read, was Thiers'
Konsulat und Kaiserreich (Consulship and Empire) ; I re-
member I pasted on the flat backs of my wooden soldiers little
labels with the names of the Imperial marshals, and that at
that time Massena (as a Jew Menasse) was already my avowed
favourite. Napoleon himself follows Hannibal in crossing the
Alps. And perhaps the development of this martial ideal
can be traced still further back into my childhood, to the wish
which the now friendly, now hostile, intercourse during my

* In the first edition there was printed here the name Hasdrubal, a con-
fusing error, the explanation of which I have given in my Psychopathologie
des Alltagalebens.

166 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

first three years with a boy a year older than myself must
have actuated, in the weaker of the two playmates.

The deeper one goes in the analysis of dreams, the more
often one is put on the track of childish experiences which
play the part of dream sources in the latent dream
content.

We have learned (p. 16) that the dream very rarely repro-
duces experiences in such a manner that they constitute the
sole manifest dream content, unabridged and unchanged.
Still some authentic examples showing this process have been
reported, and I can add some new ones which again refer to
infantile scenes. In the case of one of my patients, a dream
once gave a barely disfigured reproduction of a sexual occur-
rence, which was immediately recognised as an accurate
recollection. The memory of it indeed had never been lost
in waking life, but it had been greatly obscured, and its revivi-
fication was a result of the preceding work of analysis. The
dreamer had at the age of twelve visited a bed-ridden school-
mate, who had exposed himself by a movement in bed, pro-
bably only by chance. At the sight of the genitals, he was
seized by a kind of compulsion, exposed himself and took hold
of the member belonging to the other boy, who, however,
looked at him with surprise and indignation, whereupon he
became embarrassed and let go. A dream repeated this scene
twenty-three years later, with all the details of the emotions
occurring in it, changing it, however, in this respect, that the
dreamer took the passive part instead of the active one,
while the person of the school-mate was replaced by one
belonging to the present.

As a rule, of course, a childhood scene is represented in the
manifest dream content only by an allusion, and must be
extricated from the dream by means of interpretation. The
citation of examples of this kind cannot have a very con-
vincing effect, because every guarantee that they are experi-
ences of childhood is lacking ; if they belong to an earlier
time of life, they are no longer recognised by our memory.
Justification for the conclusion that such childish experiences
generally exist in dreams is based upon a great number of
factors which become apparent t in psychoanalytical work, and
which seem reliable enough when regarded as a whole. But

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 167

when, for the purposes of dream interpretation, such re-
ferences of dreams to childish experiences are torn from
their context, they will perhaps not make much impression,
especially since I never give all the material upon which the
interpretation depends. However, I shall not let this prevent
me from giving some examples.

I. The following dream is from another female patient :
She is in a large room, in which there are all kinds of machines,
perhaps, as she imagines, an orthopcedic institute. She hears
that I have no time, and that she must take the treatment along
with five others. But she resists, and is unwilling to lie down on
the bed — or whatever it is — which is intended for her. She stands
in a corner and waits for me to say " It is not true." The others,
meanwhile, laugh at her, saying it is all foolishness on her part.
At the same time it is as if she were called upon to make many
small squares.

The first part of the content of this dream is an allusion to
the treatment and a transference on me. The second contains
an allusion to a childhood scene ; the two portions are con-
nected by the mention of the bed. The orthopaedic institute
refers to one of my talks in which I compared the treatment
as to its duration and nature with an orthopaedic treatment.
At the beginning of the treatment I had to tell her that for
the present I had little time for her, but that later on I would
devote a whole hour to her daily. This aroused in her the
old sensitiveness, which is the chief characteristic of children
who are to be hysterical. Their desire for love is insatiable.
My patient was the youngest of six brothers and sisters (hence,
" with five others "), and as such the favourite of her father,
but in spite of that she seems to have found that her beloved
father devoted too little time and attention to her. The detail
of her waiting for me to say " It is not true," has the following
explanation : A tailor's apprentice had brought her a dress,
and she had given him the money for it. Then she asked her
husband whether she would have to pay the money again if
the boy were to lose it. To tease her, her husband answered
'' Yes " (the teasing in the dream), and she asked again and
again, and waited for him to say " It is not true." The thought
of the latent dream-content may now be construed as follows :
Will she have to pay me the double amount if I devote twice

168 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the time to her ? a thought which is stingy or filthy. (The
uncleanliness of childhood is often replaced in the dream by
greediness for money ; the word filthy here supplies the
bridge.) If all that about waiting until I should say, &c,
serves as a dream circumlocution for the word " filthy," the
standing-in-a-corner and not lying down-on-the-bed are in
keeping ; for these two features are component parts of a
scene of childhood, in which she had soiled her bed, and for
punishment was put into a corner, with the warning that papa
would not love her any more, and her brothers and sisters
laughed at her, &c. The little squares refer to her young
niece, who has shown her the arithmetical trick of writing
figures in nine squares, I believe it is, in such a way that
upon being added together in any direction they make
fifteen.

II. Here is the dream of a man : He sees two boys tussling
with each other, and they are cooper's boys, as he concludes from
the implements which are lying about ; one of the boys has thrown
the other down, the prostrate one wears ear-rings with blue stones.
He hurries after the wrongdoer with lifted cane, in order to
chastise him. The latter takes refuge with a woman who is
standing against a wooden fence, as though it were his mother.
She is the wife of a day labourer, and she turns her back to the
man who is dreaming. At last she faces about and stares at him
with a horrible look, so that he runs away in fright ; in her eyes
the red flesh of the lower lid seems to stand out.

The dream has made abundant use of trivial occurrences
of the previous day. The day before he actually saw two boys
on the street, one of whom threw the other one down. When
he hurried up to them in order to settle the quarrel, both of
them took flight. Coopers' boys : this is explained only by a
subsequent dream, in the analysis of which he used the ex-
pression, " To knock the bottom out of the barrel." Ear-rings
with blue stones, according to his observation, are chiefly
worn by prostitutes. Furthermore, a familiar doggerel rhyme
about two boys comes up : " The other boy, his name was
Mary " (that is, he was a girl). The woman standing up :
after the scene with the two boys, he took a walk on the
bank of the Danube, and took advantage of being alone
to urinate against a wooden fence. A little later during

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 169

his walk, a decently dressed elderly lady smiled at him
very pleasantly, and wanted to hand him her card with
her address.

Since in the dream the woman stood as he had while
urinating, it is a question of a woman urinating, and this
explains the " horrible look," and the prominence of the red
flesh, which can only refer to the genitals which gap in squat-
ting. He had seen genitals in his childhood, and they had
appeared in later recollection as " proud flesh " and as
" wound." The dream unites two occasions upon which, as
a young boy, the dreamer had had opportunity to see the
genitals of little girls, in throwing one down, and while another
was urinating ; and, as is shown by another association, he
had kept in memory a punishment or threat of his father's,
called forth by the sexual curiosity which the boy manifested
on these occasions.

III. A great mass of childish memories, which have been
hastily united in a phantasy, is to be found behind the follow-
ing dream of a young lady.

She goes out in trepidation, in order to do some shopping.
On the Graben * she sinks to her knees as though broken down.
Many people collect around her, especially the hackney-coach
drivers ; but no one helps her to get up. She makes many un-
availing attempts ; finally she must have succeeded, for she is
put into a hackney-coach which is to take her home. A large,
heavily laden basket (something like a market-basket) is thrown
after her through the window.

This is the same woman who is always harassed in her
dreams as she was harassed when a child. The first situation
of the dream is apparently taken from seeing a horse that
had fallen, just as " broken down " points to horse-racing.
She was a rider in her early years, still earlier she was probably
also a horse. Her first childish memory of the seventeen-
year-old son of the porter, who, being seized on the street by
an epileptic fit, was brought home in a coach, is connected
with the idea of falling down. Of this, of course, she has only
heard, but the idea of epileptic fits and of falling down has
obtained great power over her phantasies, and has later in-
fluenced the form of her own hysterical attacks. When a
* A street in Vienna.

170 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

person of the female sex dreams of falling, this almost re-
gularly has a sexual significance ; she becomes a " fallen
woman," and for the purpose of the dream under considera-
tion this interpretation is probably the least doubtful, for she
falls on the Graben, the place in Vienna which is known as
the concourse of prostitutes. The market-basket admits of
more than one interpretation ; in the sense of refusal (German,
Korb — basket — snub, refusal), she remembers the many snubs
which she first gave her suitors, and which she later, as she
thinks, received herself. Here belongs also the detail that
no one will help her up, which she herself interprets as being
disdained. Furthermore, the market-basket recalls phantasies
that have already appeared in the course of analysis, in which
she imagines she has married far beneath her station, and
now goes marketing herself. But lastly the market-basket
might be interpreted as the mark of a servant. This suggests
further childhood memories — of a cook who was sent away
because she stole ; she, too, sank to her knees and begged for
mercy. The dreamer was at that time twelve years old.
Then there is a recollection of a chamber-maid, who was
dismissed because she had an affair with the coachman of
the household, who, incidently, married her afterwards.
This recollection, therefore, gives us a clue to the coachman
in the dream (who do not, in contrast with what is actually
the case, take the part of the fallen woman). But there still
remains to be explained the throwing of the basket, and the
throwing of it through the window. This takes her to the
transference of baggage on the railroad, to the Fensterln*
in the country, and to minor impressions received at a country
resort, of a gentleman throwing some blue plums to a lady
through her window, and of the dreamer's little sister being
frightened because a cretin who was passing looked in at the
window. And now from behind this there emerges an obscure
recollection, from her tenth year, of a nurse who made love at
the country resort with a servant of the household, of which

* Fensterln is the practice, now falling into disuse, found in rural dis-
tricts of the German Schwarzwald, of lovers wooing at the windows of their
sweethearts, bringing ladders with them, and becoming so intimate that they
practically enjoy a system of trial marriages. The reputation of the young
woman never suffers on account of fensterln, unless she becomes intimate
with too many suitors. (Translator.)

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 171

the child had opportunity to see something, and who was
" fired " (thrown out) (in the dream the opposite : " thrown
into "), a story which we had also approached by several
other paths. The baggage, moreover, or the trunk of a servant,
is disparagingly referred to in Vienna as " seven plums."
" Pack up your seven plums and get out."

My collection, of course, contains an abundant supply of
such patients' dreams, whose analysis leads to childish im-
pressions that are remembered obscurely or not at all, and
that often date back to the first three years of life. But it is
a mistake to draw conclusions from them which are to apply
to the dream in general ; we are in every case dealing with
neurotic, particularly with hysterical persons ; and the part
played by childhood scenes in these dreams might be con-
ditioned by the nature of the neurosis, and not by that of the
dream. However, I am struck quite as often in the course of
interpreting my own dreams, which I do not do on account of
obvious symptoms of disease, by the fact that I unsuspectingly
come upon a scene of childhood in the latent dream content,
and that a whole series of dreams suddenly falls into line with
conclusions drawn from childish experiences. I have already
given examples of this, and shall give still more upon various
occasions. Perhaps I cannot close the whole chapter more
fittingly than by citing several of my own dreams, in which
recent happenings and long-forgotten experiences of child-
hood appear together as sources of dreams.

I. After I fyave been travelling and have gone to bed
hungry and tired, the great necessities of life begin to assert
their claims in sleep, and I dream as follows : I go into a
kitchen to order sow,e pastry. Here three women are standing,
one of whom is the hostess, and is turning something in her hand
as though she zuere making dumplings. She answers that I
must wait until she has finished (not distinctly as a speech).
/ become impatient and go away insulted. I put on an overcoat ;
but the first one which I try is too long. I take it off, and am
somewhat astonished to find that it has fur trimming. A second
one has sewn into it a long strip of cloth with Turkish drawings.
A stranger with a long face and a short pointed beard comes up
and prevents me from putting it on, declaring that it belongs to
him. I now shoiv him that it is embroidered all over in Turkish

172 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

fashion. He asks, " What business are the Turkish {drawings,
strips of cloth . . . ) of yours ? But we then become quite
friendly with each other.

In the analysis of this dream there occurs to me quite
unexpectedly the novel which I read, that is to say, which I
began with the end of the first volume, when I was perhaps
thirteen years old. I have never known the name of the novel
or of its author, but the conclusion remains vividly in my
memory. The hero succumbs to insanity, and continually
calls the names of the three women that have signified the
greatest good and ill fortune for him during life. Pelagie is
one of these names. I still ao not know what to make of
this name in the analysis. A propos of the three women there
now come to the surface the three Parcae who spin the fate of
man, and I know that one of the three women, the hostess
in the dream, is the mother who gives life, and who, moreover,
as in my case, gives the first nourishment to the living creature.
Love and hunger meet at the mother's breast. A young man
— so runs an anecdote — who became a great admirer of womanly
beauty, once when the conversation turned upon a beautiful
wet nurse who had nourished him as a child, expressed himself
to the effect that he was sorry that he had not taken better
advantage of his opportunity at the time. I am in the habit
of using the anecdote to illustrate the factor of subsequence
in the mechanism of psychoneuroses. . . . One of the Pare«,
then, is rubbing the palms of her hands together as though she
were making dumplings. A strange occupation for one of
the Fates, which is urgently in need of an explanation ! This
is now found in another and earlier childhood memory. When
I was six years old, and was receiving my first instructions from
my mother, I was asked to believe that we are made of earth,
and that therefore we must return to earth. But this did not
suit me, and I doubted her teaching. Thereupon my mother
rubbed the palms of her hands together — just as in making
dumplings, except that there was no dough between them —
and showed me the blackish scales of epidermis which were
thus rubbed off as a proof that it is earth of which we are
made. My astonishment at this demonstration ad oculos
was without limit, and I acquiesced in the idea which I was
later to hear expressed in words : " Thou owest nature a

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 173

death." * Thus the women are really Parese whom I visit
in the kitchen, as I have done so often in my childhood years
when I was hungry, and when my mother used to order me to
wait until lunch was ready. And now for the dumplings !
At least one of my teachers at the University, the very one
to whom I am indebted for my histological knowledge
(epidermis), might be reminded by the name Knoedl (German,
Knoedel = dumplings) of a person whom he had to prosecute
for committing a plagiarism of his writings. To commit
plagiarism, to appropriate anything one can get, even though
it belongs to another, obviously leads to the second part of
the dream, in which I am treated like a certain overcoat thief,
who for a time plied his trade in the auditoria. I wrote down
the expression plagiarism — without any reason — because it
presented itself to me, and now I perceive that it must belong
to the latent dream-content, because it will serve as a bridge
between different parts of the manifest dream-content. The
chain of associations — Pelagie — plagiarism — plagiostomi f
(sharks) — fish bladder — connects the old novel with the affair
of Knoedl and with the overcoats (German, Überzieher = thing
drawn over — overcoat or condom), which obviously refer to
an object belonging to the technique of sexual life.t This, it is
true, is a very forced and irrational connection, but it is
nevertheless one which I could not establish in waking life
if it had not been already established by the activity of the
dream. Indeed, as though nothing were sacred for this
impulse to force connections, the beloved name, Bruecke
(bridge of words, see above), now serves to remind me of the
institution in which I spent my happiest hours as a student,
quite without any cares ("So you will ever find more pleasure
at the breasts of knowledge without measure "), in the most
complete contrast to the urgent desires which vex me while I
dream. And finally there comes to the surface the recollec-
tion of another dear teacher, whose name again sounds like

* Both the emotions which belong to these childish scenes — astonishment
and resignation to the inevitable — had appeared in a dream shortly before,
which was the first thing that brought back the memory of this childhood
experience.

t I do not elaborate plagiostomi purposely ; they recall an occasion of
angry disgrace before the same teacher.

X Of. Maury's dream about kilo-lotto, p. 50.

174 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

something to eat (Fleischl — German, Fleisch = meat — like
Knoedl), and of a pathetic scene, in which the scales of epidermis
play a part (mother — hostess), and insanity (the novel), and
a remedy from the Latin kitchen which numbs the sensation
of hunger, to wit, cocaine.

In this manner I could follow the intricate trains of thought
still further, and could fully explain the part of the dream
which is missing in the analysis ; but I must refrain, because
the personal sacrifices which it would require are too great.
I shall merely take up one of the threads, which will serve to
lead us directly to the dream thoughts that he at the bottom
of the confusion. The stranger, with the long face and
pointed beard, who wants to prevent me from putting on
the overcoat, has the features of a tradesman at Spalato, of
whom my wife made ample purchases of Turkish cloths. His
name was Popovic, a suspicious name, which, by the way,
has given the humorist Stettenheim a chance to make a
significant remark : " He told me his name, and blushingly
shook my hand." * Moreover, there is the same abuse of
names as above with Pelagie, Knoedl, Bruecke, Fleischl.
That such playing with names is childish nonsense can be
asserted without fear of contradiction ; if I indulge in it,
this indulgence amounts to an act of retribution, for my own
name has numberless times fallen a victim to such weak-
minded attempts at humour. Goethe once remarked how
sensitive a man is about his name with which, as with his skin,
he feels that he has grown up, whereupon Herder composed
the following on his name :

" Thou who art born of gods, of Goths, or of Kot (mud) —
Thy godlike images, too, are dust."

I perceive that this digression about the abuse of names
was only intended to prepare for this complaint. But let us
stop here. . . . The purchase at Spalato reminds me of
another one at Cattaro, where I was too cautious, and missed
an opportunity for making some desirable acquisitions.
(Missing an opportunity at the breast of the nurse, see above.)
Another dream thought, occasioned in the dreamer by the
sensation of hunger, is as follows : One should let nothing
* Popo = backside in German nursery language.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 175

which one can have escape, even if a little wrong is done ; no
opportunity should be missed, life is so short, death inevitable.
Owing to the fact that this also has a sexual significance, and
that desire is unwilling to stop at a wrong, this philosophy
of carpe diem must fear the censor and must hide behind a
dream. This now makes articulate counter-thoughts of all
kinds, recollections of a time when spiritual food alone was
sufficient for the dreamer ; it suggests repressions of every
kind, and even threats of disgusting sexual punishments.

II. A second dream requires a longer preliminary state-
ment :

I have taken a car to the West Station in order to begin a
vacation journey to the Aussee, and I reach the station in
time for the train to Ischl, which leaves earlier. Here I see
Count Thun, who is again going to see the Emperor at Ischl.
In spite of the rain, he has come in an open carriage, has
passed out at once through the door for local trains, and has
motioned back the gate-keeper, who does not know him and
who wants to take his ticket, with a little wave of his hand.
After the train to Ischl has left, I am told to leave the platform
and go back into the hot waiting-room ; but with difficulty
I secure permission to remain. I pass the time in watching
the people who make use of bribes to secure a compartment ;
I make up my mind to insist on my rights — that is, to demand
the same privilege. Meanwhile I sing something to myself,
which I afterwards recognise to be the aria from Figaro's
Wedding :

" If my lord Count wishes to try a dance,
Try a dance,
Let him but say so,
I'll play him a tune."

(Possibly another person would not have recognised the
song.)

During the whole afternoon I have been in an insolent,
combative mood ; I have spoken roughly to the waiter and
the cabman, I hope without hurting their feelings ; now all
kinds of bold and revolutionary thoughts come into my head,
of a kind suited to the words of Figaro and the comedy of
Beaumarchais, which I had seen at the Comedie Francaise.

176 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

The speech about great men who had taken the trouble to be
born ; the aristocratic prerogative, which Count Almaviva
wants to apply in the case of Susan ; the jokes which our
malicious journalists of the Opposition make upon the name
of Count Thun (German, thun = doing) by calling him Count
Do-Nothing. I really do not envy him ; he has now a difficult
mission with the Emperor, and I am the real Count Do-Nothing,
for I am taking a vacation. With this, all kinds of cheerful
plans for the vacation. A gentleman now arrives who is
known to me as a representative of the Government at the
medical examinations, and who has won the flattering nick-
name of " Governmental bed-fellow " by his activities in this
capacity. By insisting on his official station he secures half
of a first-class compartment, and I hear one guard say to the
other : " Where are we going to put the gentleman with the
first-class half -compartment ? " A pretty favouritism ; I
am paying for a whole first-class compartment. Now I get
a whole compartment for myself, but not in a through coach,
so that there is no toilet at my disposal during the night.
My complaints to the guard are without result ; I get even
by proposing that at least there be a hole made in the floor of
this compartment for the possible needs of the travellers. I
really awake at a quarter of three in the morning with a desire
to urinate, having had the following dream :

Crowd of people, meeting of students. . . . A certain
Count (Thun or Taafe) is making a speech. Upon being asked
to say something about the Germans, he declares with contemptuous
mien that their favourite flower is Colfs-foot, and then puts some-
thing like a torn leaf, really the crumpled skeleton of a leaf, into
his buttonhole. I make a start, I make a start then* but I am
surprised at this idea of mine. Then more indistinctly : It
seems as though it ivere the vestibule (Aida), the exits are jammed,
as though it ivere necessary to flee. I make my way through a
suite of handsomely furnished rooms, apparently governmental
chambers, with furniture of a colour which is between brown and
violet, and at last I come to a passage where a housekeeper, an
elderly, fat woman (Frauenzimmer), is seated. I try to avoid

* This repetition has insinuated itself into the text of the dream appa-
rently through my absent-mindedness, and I allow it to remain because the
analysis shows that it has its significance.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 177

talking to her, but apparently she thinks I have a right to pass
because she asks whether she shall accompany me with the lamp.
I signify to her to tell her that she is to remain standing on the
stairs, and in this I appear to myself very clever, for avoiding
being watched at last. I am downstairs now, and I find a narrow,
steep way along which I go.

Again indistinctly . . . It is as if my second task were to
get away out of the city, as my earlier was to get out of the house.
I am riding in a one-horse carriage, and tell the driver to take me
to a railway station. " I cannot ride with you on the tracks," I
say, after he has made the objection that I have tired him out.
Here it seems as though I had already driven with him along a
course which is ordinarily traversed on the railroad. The stations are
crowded ; I consider whether I shall go to Krems or to Znaim, but I
think that the court will be there, and I decide in favour of Graz or
something of the sort. Now I am seated in the coach, which is some-
thing like a street-car, and I have in my buttonhole a long braided
thing, on which are violet-brown violets of stiff material, which
attracts the attention of many people. Here the scene breaks off.

I am again in front of the railroad station, but I am with a elderly
gentleman. I invent a scheme for remaining unrecognised, but I also
see this plan already carried out. Thinking and experiencing are
here, as it were, the same thing. He pretends to be blind, at least in
one eye, and I hold a male urinal in front of him {which we have
had to buy in the city or did buy), I am thus a sick attendant, and
have to give him the urinal because he is blind. If the conductor
sees us in this position, he must pass us by without drawing atten-
tion. At the same time the attitude of the person mentioned is
visually observed. Then I awake with a desire to urinate.

The whole dream seems a sort of phantasy, which takes the
dreamer back to the revolutionary year 1848, the memory of
which had been renewed by the anniversary year 1898, as well
as by a little excursion to Wachau, where I had become ac-
quainted with Emmersdorf, a town which I wrongly supposed
to be the resting-place of the student leader Fischof, to whom
several features of the dream content might refer. The
thought associations then lead me to England, to the house of
my brother, who was accustomed jokingly to tell his wife of
" Fifty years ago," according to the title of a poem by Lord
Tennyson, whereupon the children were in the habit of

M

178 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

correcting : " Fifteen years ago." This phantasy, however, which
subtilely attaches itself to the thoughts which the sight of the
Count Thun has given rise to, is only like the facade of Italian
churches which is superimposed without being organically
connected with the building behind it ; unlike these facades,
however, the phantasy is filled with gaps and confused, and
the parts from within break through at many places. The
first situation of the dream is concocted from several scenes,
into which I am able to separate it. The arrogant attitude of
the Count in the dream is copied from a scene at the Gymnasium
which took place in my fifteenth year. We had contrived
a conspiracy against an unpopular and ignorant teacher, the
leading spirit in which was a schoolmate who seems to have
taken Henry VIII. of England as his model. It fell to me to
carry out the coup-d 'dtat, and a discussion of the importance
of the Danube (German Donau) for Austria (Wachau !) was
the occasion upon which matters came to open indignation.
A fellow-conspirator was the only aristocratic schoolmate
whom we had — he was called the " giraffe " on account of his
conspicuous longitudinal development — and he stood just like
the Count in the dream, while he was being reprimanded by
the tyrant of the school, the Professor of the German language.
The explanation of the favourite flower and the putting into
the buttonhole of something which again must have been a
flower (which recalls the orchids, which I had brought to a
lady friend on the same day, and besides that the rose of
Jericho) prominently recalls the scene in Shakespeare's his-
torical plays which opens the civil wars of the Red and the
White Roses ; the mention of Henry VIII. has opened the
way to this reminiscence. It is not very far now from roses
to red and white carnations. Meanwhile two little rhymes,
the one German, the other Spanish, insinuate themselves into
the analysis : " Roses, tulips, carnations, all flowers fade,"
and " Isabelita, no llores que se marchitan las flores." The
Spanish is taken from Figaro. Here in Vienna white car-
nations have become the insignia of the Anti-Semites, the
red ones of the Social Democrats. Behind this is the recollec-
tion of an anti-Semitic challenge during a railway trip in
beautiful Saxony (Anglo-Saxon). The third scene contribut-
ing to the formation of the first situation in the dream takes

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 179

place in my early student life. There was a discussion in the
German students' club about the relation of philosophy to the
general sciences. A green youth, full of the materialistic
doctrine, I thrust myself forward and defended a very one-
sided view. Thereupon a sagacious older school-fellow, who
has since shown his capacity for leading men and organising
the masses, and who, moreover, bears a name belonging to
the animal kingdom, arose and called us down thoroughly ;
he too, he said, had herded swine in his youth, and had come
back repentant to the house of his father. I started up (as
in the dream), became very uncivil, and answered that since
I knew he had herded swine, I was not surprised at the tone of
his discourse. (In the dream I am surprised at my national
German sentiment.) There was great commotion ; and the
demand came from all sides that I take back what I had said,
but I remained steadfast. The man who had been insulted
was too sensible to take the advice, which was given him, to
send a challenge, and let the matter drop.

The remaining elements of this scene of the dream are of
more remote origin. What is the meaning of the Count's
proclaiming the colt's foot ? Here I must consult my train
of associations. Colt's-foot (German : Huflattich) — lattice —
lettuce — salad-dog (the dog that grudges others what he cannot
eat himself). Here plenty of opprobrious epithets may be
discerned : Gir-afTe (German Affe = monkey, ape), pig, sow,
dog ; I might even find means to arrive at donkey, on a detour
by way of a name, and thus again at contempt for an academic
teacher. Furthermore I translate colt's-foot (Huflattich) — I
do not know how correctly — by " pisse-en-lit." I got this
idea from Zola's Germinal, in which children are ordered to
bring salad of this kind. The dog — chien — has a name sound-
ing like the major function (chier, as pisser stands for the
minor one). Now we shall soon have before us the indecent
in all three of its categories ; for in the same Germinal, which
has a lot to do with the future revolution there is described
a very peculiar contest, depending upon the production of
gaseous excretions, called flatus.* And now I must remark

* Not in Germinal, but in La Terre — a mistake of which I became aware
only in the analysis. I may call attention also to the identity of the letters
in Huflattich and Flatus.

180 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

how the way to this flatus has been for a long while preparing,
beginning with the flowers, and proceeding to the Spanish
rhyme of Isabelita to Ferdinand and Isabella, and, by way of
Henry VIII., to English history at the time of the expedition
of the Armada against England, after the victorious termina-
tion of which the English struck a medal with the in-
scription : " Afflavit et dissipati sunt," for the storm had
scattered the Spanish fleet. I had thought of taking this
phrase for the title of a chapter on " Therapeutics " — to
be meant half jokingly — if I should ever have occasion to
give a detailed account of my conception and treatment
of hysteria.

I cannot give such a detailed solution of the second scene
of the dream, out of regard for the censor. For at this point
I put myself in the place of a certain eminent gentleman of
that revolutionary period, who also had an adventure with an
eagle, who is said to have suffered from incontinence of the
bowels, and the like ; and I believe I should not be justified at
this point in passing the censor, although it was an aulic
councillor (aula, consilarius aidicus) who told me the greater
part of these stories. The allusion to the suite of rooms in
the dream relates to the private car of his Excellency, into
which I had opportunity to look for a moment ; but it signifies,
as so often in dreams, a woman (Frauenzimmer ; German
Zimmer — room is appended to Frauen — woman, in order to
imply a slight amount of contempt).* In the person of the
housekeeper I give scant recognition to an intelligent elderly
lady for the entertainment and the many good stories which I
have enjoyed at her house. . . . The feature of the lamp goes
back to Grillparzer, who notes a charming experience of a
similar nature, which he afterwards made use of in " Hero and
Leander " (the billows of the ocean and of love — the Armada
and the storm ).f

I must also forgo detailed analysis of the two remaining
portions of the dream ; I shall select only those elements

* Translator's note.

t In his significant work (" Phantasie und Mythos," Jahrbuch für Psycho-
analyse, Bd. iL, 1910), H. Silberer has endeavoured to show from this part
of the dream that the dreamwoik is able to reproduce not only the latent
dream thoughts, but also the psychic processes in the dream formation
" Das f unctionale Phänomen ").

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 181

which lead to two childhood scenes, for the sake of which alone
I have taken up the dream. The reader will guess that it is
sexual matter which forces me to this suppression ; but he
need not be content with this explanation. Many things
which must be treated as secrets in the presence of others are
not treated as such with one's self, and here it is not a question
of considerations inducing me to hide the solution, but of
motives of the inner censor concealing the real content of the
dream from myself. I may say, then, that the analysis shows
these three portions of the dream to be impertinent boasting,
the exuberance of an absurd grandiose idea which has long
since been suppressed in my waking life, which, however, dares
show itself in the manifest dream content by one or two pro-
jections (/ seem clever to myself), and which makes the arrogant
mood of the evening before the dream perfectly intelligible.
It is boasting, indeed, in all departments ; thus the mention
of Graz refers to the phrase : What is the price of Graz %
which we are fond of using when we feel over-supplied with
money. Whoever will recall Master Rabelais's unexcelled
description of the " Life and Deeds of Gargantua and his Son
Pantagruel," will be able to supply the boastful content inti-
mated in the first portion of the dream. The following belongs
to the two childhood scenes which have been promised. I had
bought a new trunk for this journey, whose colour, a brownish
violet, appears in the dream several times. (Violet-brown
violets made of stiff material, next to a thing which is called
" girl-catcher " — the furniture in the governmental chambers).
That something new attracts people's attention is a well-
known belief of children. Now I have been told the following
story of my childhood ; I remember hearing the story rather
than the occurrence itself. I am told that at the age of two
I still occasionally wetted my bed, that I was often reproached
on this subject, and that I consoled my father by promising
to buy him a beautiful new red bed in N. (the nearest large
city). (Hence the detail inserted in the dream that we bought
the urinal in the city or had to buy it; one must keep one's
promises. Attention is further called to the identity of the
male urinal and the feminine trunk, box). All the megalo-
mania of the child is contained in this promise. The signi-
ficance of the dream of difficulty in urinating in the case of the

182 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

child has been already considered in the interpretation of an
earlier dream (c/. the dream on p. 145).

Now there was another domestic occurrence, when I was
seven or eight years old, which I remember very well. One
evening, before going to bed I had disregarded the dictates of
discretion not to satisfy my wants in the bedroom of my
parents and in their presence, and in his reprimand for this
delinquency my father made the remark : " That boy will
never amount to anything." It must have terribly mortified
my ambition, for allusions to this scene return again and again
in my dreams, and are regularly coupled with enumerations
of my accomplishments and successes, as though I wanted to
say : " You see, I have amounted to something after all."
Now this childhood scene furnishes the elements for the last
image of the dream, in which of course, the roles are inter-
changed for the sake of revenge. The elderly man, obviously
my father, for the blindness in one eye signifies his glaucoma *
on one side is now urinating before me as I once urinated before
him. In glaucoma I refer to cocaine, which stood my father in
good stead in his operation, as though I had thereby fulfilled
my promises. Besides that I make sport of him ; since he is
blind I must hold the urinal in front of him, and I gloat over
allusions to my discoveries in the theory of hysteria, of which
I am so proud.f

* Another interpretation : He is one-eyed like Odin, the father of the
gods . . . Odin's consolation. The consolation in the childish scene, that I
will buy him a new bed.

t I here add some material for interpretation. Holding the urinal
recalls the story of a peasant who tries one glass after another at the opticians,
but still cannot read (peasant-catcher, like girl-catcher in a portion of the
dream). The treatment among the peasants of the father who lias become
weak-minded in Zola's La Terre. The pathetic atonement that in his last
days the father soils his bed like a child ; hence, also, I am his sick-attendant
in the dream. Thinking and experiencing are here, as it were ; the same
thing recalls a highly revolutionary closet drama by Oscar Panizza, in which
the Godhead is treated quite contemptuously, as though he were a paralytic
old man. There occurs a passage : " Will and deed are the same thing with
him, and he must be prevented by his archangel, a kind of Ganymede, from
scolding and swearing, because these curses would immediately be f'ul tilled."
Making plans is a reproach against my father, dating from a later period in
the development of my critical faculty ; just as the whole rebellious, sovereign-
offending dream, with its scoff at high authority, originates in a revolt against
my father. The sovereign is called father of the land (Landesvater), and
the father is the oldest, first and only authority for the child, from the
absolutism of which the other social authorities have developed in the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 183

If the two childhood scenes of urinating are otherwise
closely connected with the desire for greatness, their rehabilita-
tion on the trip to the Aussee was further favoured by the
accidental circumstance that my compartment had no water-
closet, and that I had to expect embarrassment on the ride as
actually happened in the morning. I awoke with the sensation
of a bodily need. I suppose one might be inclined to credit
these sensations with being the actual stimulus of the dream ;
I should, however, prefer a different conception — namely,
that it was the dream thoughts which gave rise to the desire
to urinate. It is quite unusual for me to be disturbed in sleep
by any need, at least at the time of this awakening, a quarter
of four in the morning. I may forestall further objection by
remarking that I have hardly ever felt a desire to urinate
after awakening early on other journeys made under more
comfortable circumstances. Moreover, I can leave this point
undecided without hurting my argument.

Since I have learned, further, from experience in dream
analysis that there always remain important trains of thought
proceeding from dreams whose interpretation at first seems
complete (because the sources of the dream and the actuation
of the wish are easily demonstrable), trains of thought reaching
back into earliest childhood, I have been forced to ask myself
whether this feature does not constitute an essential condition
of dreaming. If I were to generalise this thesis, a connection
with what has been recently experienced would form a part

course of the history of human civilisation (in so far as the " mother's right "
does not force a qualification of this thesis). The idea in the dream, " think-
ing and experiencing are the same thing," refers to the explanation of
hysterical symptoms, to which the male urinal (glass) also has a relation. I
need not explain the principle of the " Gschnas " to a Viennese ; it consists in
constructing objects of rare and costly appearance out of trifles, and pre-
ferably out of comical and worthless material — for example, making suits of
armour out of cooking utensils, sticks and " salzstangeln (elongated rolls), as
our artists like to do at their jolly parties. I had now learned that hysterical
subjects do the same thing ; besides what has actually occurred to them, they
unconsciously conceive horrible or extravagant fantastic images, which they
construct from the most harmless and commonplace things they have ex-
perienced. The symptoms depend solely upon these phantasies, not upon
the memory of their real experiences, be they serious or harmless. This
explanation helped me to overcome many difficulties and gave me much
pleasure. I was able to allude to it in the dream element " male urinal " (glass)
because I had been told that at the last " Gschnas " evening a poison chalice
of Lucretia Borgia had been exhibited, the chief constituent of which had
consisted of a glass urinal for men, such as is used in hospitals.

184 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of the manifest content of every dream and a connection with
what has been most remotely experienced, of its latent content ;
and I can actually show in the analysis of hysteria that in a
true sense these remote experiences have remained recent up
to the present time. But this conjecture seems still very
difficult to prove ; I shall probably have to return to the part
played by the earliest childhood experiences, in another con-
nection (Chapter VII.).

Of the three peculiarities of dream memory considered at
the beginning, one — the preference for the unimportant in
the dream content — has been satisfactorily explained by tracing
it back to dream disfigurement. We have been able to estab-
lish the existence of the other two — the selection of recent and
of infantile material — but we have found it impossible to
explain them by the motive of dream. Let us keep in mind
these two characteristics, which still remain to be explained
or evaluated ; a place for them will have to be found else-
where, either in the psychology of the sleeping state, or in the
discussion of the structure of the psychic apparatus which we
shall undertake later, after we have learned that the inner
nature of the apparatus may be observed through dream
interpretation as though through a window.

Just here I may emphasize another result of the last few
dream analyses. The dream often appears ambiguous ; not
only may several wish-fulfilments, as the examples show, be
united in it, but one meaning or one wish-fulfilment may also
conceal another, until at the bottom one comes upon the
fulfilment of a wish from the earliest period of childhood ; and
here too, it may be questioned whether " often " in this sentence
may not more correctly be replaced by " regularly."

(c) Somatic Sources of Dreams

If the attempt be made to interest the cultured layman in
the problems of dreaming, and if, with this end in view, he be
asked the question from what source dreams originate according
to his opinion, it is generally found that the person thus interro-
gated thinks himself in assured possession of a part of the
solution. He immediately thinks of the influence which a
disturbed or impeded digestion (" Dreams come from the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 185

stomach "), accidental bodily position, and little occurrences
during sleep, exercise upon the formation of dreams, and he
seems not to suspect that even after the consideration of all
these factors there still remains something unexplained.

We have explained at length in the introductory chapter
(p. 16), what a role in the formation of dreams the scientific
literature credits to the account of somatic exciting sources,
so that we need here only recall the results of this investiga-
tion. We have seen that three kinds of somatic exciting
sources are distinguished, objective sensory stimuli which
proceed from external objects, the inner states of excitation
of the sensory organs having only a subjective basis, and the
bodily stimuli which originate internally ; and we have noticed
the inclination on the part of the authors to force the psychic
sources of the dream into the background or to disregard them
altogether in favour of these somatic sources of stimulation
(p. 32).

In testing the claims which are made on behalf of these
classes of somatic sources of stimulation, we have discovered
that the significance of the objective stimuli of the sensory
organs — whether accidental stimuli during sleep or those
stimuli which cannot be excluded from our dormant psychic
life — has been definitely established by numerous observations
and is confirmed by experiments (p. 18) ; we have seen that
the part played by subjective sensory stimuli appears to be
demonstrated by the return of hypnogogic sensory images in
dreams, and that although the referring of these dream images
and ideas, in the broadest sense, to internal bodily stimulation
is not demonstrable in every detail, it can be supported by the
well-known influence which an exciting state of the digestive,
urinary, and sexual organs exercise upon the contents of our
dreams.

" Nerve stimulus " and " bodily stimulus," then, would be
the somatic sources of the dream — that is, the only sources
whatever of the dream, according to several authors.

But we have already found a number of doubts, which seem
to attack not so much the correctness of the somatic theory of
stimulation as its adequacy.

However certain all the representatives of this theory may
have felt about the actual facts on which it is based — especially

186 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

in case of the accidental and external nerve stimuli, which
may be recognised in the content of the dream without any
trouble — nevertheless none of them has been able to avoid
the admission that the abundant ideal content of dreams does
not admit of explanation by external nerve-stimuli alone.
Miss Mary Whiton Calkins 12 has tested her own dreams and
those of another person for a period of six weeks with this idea
in mind, and has found only from 13" 2 per cent, to 6" 7 per cent,
in which the element of external sensory perception was
demonstrable ; only two cases in the collection could be re-
ferred to organic sensations. Statistics here confirm what a
hasty glance at our own experience might have led us to
suspect.

The decision has been made repeatedly to distinguish the
" dream of nerve stimulus " from the other forms of the
dream as a well-established sub-species. Spitta 64 divided
dreams into dreams of nerve stimulus and association dreams.
But the solution clearly remained unsatisfactory as long as
the link between the somatic sources of dreams and their
ideal content could not be demonstrated.

Besides the first objection, of the inadequate frequency of
external exciting sources, there arises as a second objection the
inadequate explanation of dreams offered by the introduction
of this sort of dream sources. The representatives of the
theory accordingly must explain two things, in the first place,
why the external stimulus in the dream is never recognised
according to its real nature, but is regularly mistaken for
something else (c/. the alarm-clock dreams, p. 22), and secondly,
why the reaction of the receiving mind to this misrecognised
stimulus should result so indeterminately and changefully.
As an answer to these questions, we have heard from Strümpell 66
that the mind, as a result of its being turned away from the
outer world during sleep, is not capable of giving correct inter-
pretation to the objective sensory stimulus, but is forced to
form illusions on the basis of the indefinite incitements from
many directions. As expressed in his own words (p. 108) :

" As soon as a sensation, a sensational complex, a feeling,
or a psychic process in general, arises in the mind during sleep
from an outer or inner nerve-stimulus, and is perceived by the
mind, this process calls up sensory images, that is to say,

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 187

earlier perceptions, either unembellished or with the psychic
values belonging to them, from the range of waking experi-
ences, of which the mind has remained in possession. It
seems to collect about itself, as it were, a greater or less number
of such images, from which the impression which originates
from the nerve-stimulus receives its psychic value. It is
usually said here, as the idiom does of waking thought, that
the mind interprets impressions of nerve-stimuli in sleep. The
result of this interpretation is the so-called nerve-stimulus
dream — that is to say, a dream whose composition is con-
ditioned by the fact that a nerve-stimulus brings about its
effect in psychic life according to the laws of reproduction."

The opinion of Wundt 76 agrees in all essentials with this
theory. He says that the ideas in the dream are probably
the result, for the most part, of sensory stimuli, especially of
those of general sensation, and are therefore mostly phantastic
illusions — probably memory presentations which are only
partly pure, and which have been raised to hallucinations.
Strümpell has found an excellent simile (p. 84). It is as " if
the ten fingers of a person ignorant of music should stray over
the keyboard of an instrument " — to illustrate the relation
between dream content and dream stimuli, which follows from
this theory. The implication is that the dream does not
appear as a psychic phenomenon, originating from psychic
motives, but as the result of a physiological stimulus, which is
expressed in psychic symptomology, because the apparatus
which is affected by the stimulus is not capable of any other
expression. Upon a similar assumption is based, for example,
the explanation of compulsive ideas which Meynert tried to
give by means of the famous simile of the dial on which in-
dividual figures are prominent because they are in more
marked relief.

However popular this theory of somatic dream stimuli
may have become, and however seductive it may seem, it is
nevertheless easy to show the weak point in it. Every
somatic dream stimulus which provokes the psychic apparatus
to interpretation through the formation of illusions, is capable
of giving rise to an incalculable number of such attempts at
interpretation ; it can thus attain representation in the
dream content by means of an extraordinary number of

188 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

different ideas. But the theory of Strümpell and Wundt is
incapable of instancing any motive which has control over the
relation between the external stimulus and the dream idea
which has been selected to interpret it, and therefore of
explaining the " peculiar choice " which the stimuli " often
enough make in the course of their reproductive activity "
(Lipps, Grundtatsachen des Seelenlebens, p. 170). Other ob-
jections may be directed against the fundamental assumption
of the whole theory of illusions — the assumption that during
sleep the mind is not in a condition to recognise the real nature
of the objective sensory stimuli. The old physiologist Burdach 8
proves to us that the mind is quite capable even during sleep
of interpreting correctly the sensory impressions which reach
it, and of reacting in accordance with the correct interpretation.
He establishes this by showing that it is possible to exempt
certain impressions which seem important to the individuals,
from the neglect of sleeping (nurse and child), and that one is
more surely awakened by one's own name than by an in-
different auditory impression, all of which presupposes, of
course, that the mind distinguishes among sensations, even in
sleep (Chapter I., p. 41). Burdach infers from these observa-
tions that it is not an incapability of interpreting sensory
stimuli in the sleeping state which must be assumed, but a
lack of interest in them. The same arguments which Burdach
used in 1830, later reappear unchanged in the works of Lipps
in the year 1883, where they are employed for the purpose of
attacking the theory of somatic stimuli. According to this
the mind seems to be like the sleeper in the anecdote, who,
upon being asked, " Are you asleep ? " answers " No," and
upon being again addressed with the words, " Then lend me
ten florins," takes refuge in the excuse : " I am asleep."

The inadequacy of the theory of somatic dream stimuli
may also be demonstrated in another manner. Observations
show that I am not urged to dream by external stimulations,
even if these stimulations appear in the dream as soon as, and
in case that, I dream. In response to the tactile or pressure
stimulus which I get while sleeping, various reactions are at
my disposal. I can overlook it and discover only upon awaken-
ing that my leg has been uncovered or my arm under pressure ;
pathology shows the most numerous examples where power-

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 189

fully acting sensory and motor stimuli of different sorts remain
without effect during sleep. I can perceive a sensation during
sleep through and through sleep, as it were, which happens
as a rule with painful stimuli, but without weaving the pain
into the texture of the dream ; thirdly, I can awaken on
account of the stimulus in order to obviate it. Only as a fourth
possible reaction, I may be impelled to dream by a nerve
stimulus ; but the other possibilities are realised at least as
often as that of dream formation. This could not be the case
if the motive for dreaming did not lie outside of the somatic
sources of dreams.

Taking proper account of the defect in the explanation of
dreams by somatic stimuli which has just been shown, other
authors — Scherner,58 who was joined by the philosopher
Volkelt 72 — have tried to determine more exactly the psychic
activities which cause the variegated dream images to arise
from the somatic stimuli, and have thus transferred the
essential nature of dreams back to the province of the mind,
and to that of psychic activity. Schemer not only gave a
poetically appreciative, glowing and vivid description of the
psychic peculiarities which develop in the course of dream
formation ; he also thought he had guessed the principle
according to which the mind proceeds with the stimuli that
are at its disposal. The dream activity, according to Schemer
— after phantasy has been freed from the shackles imposed
upon it during the day, and has been given free rein — strives
to represent symbolically the nature of the organ from which
the stimulus proceeds. Thus we have a kind of dream-book
as a guide for the interpretation of dreams, by means of which
bodily sensations, the conditions of the organs and of the
stimuli may be inferred from dream images. " Thus the
image of a cat expresses an angry discontented mood, the
image of a light-coloured bit of smooth pastry the nudity of
the body. The human body as a whole is pictured as a house
by the phantasy of the dream, and each individual organ of
the body as a part of the house. In ' toothache-dreams ' a
high vaulted vestibule corresponds to the mouth and a stair
to the descent of the gullet to the alimentary canal ; in the
' headache-dream ' the ceiling of a room which is covered
with disgusting reptile-like spiders is chosen to denote the

190 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

upper part of the head " (Volkelt, p. 39). " Several different
symbols are used by the dream for the same organ, thus the
breathing lungs find their symbol in an oven filled with flames
and with a roaring draught, the heart in hollow chests and
baskets, and the bladder in round, bag-shaped objects or
anything else hollow. It is especially important that at the
end of a dream the stimulating organ or its function be repre-
sented undisguised and usually on the dreamer's own body.
Thus the ' toothache-dream ' usually ends by the dreamer
drawing a tooth from his own mouth " (p. 35). It cannot be
said that this theory has found much favour with the authors.
Above all, it seems extravagant ; there has been no inclination
even to discover the small amount of justification to which it
may, in my opinion, lay claim. As may be seen, it leads tcna —
revival of the dream interpretation by means of symbolism,
which the ancients used, except that the source from which
the interpretation is to be taken is limited to the human body.
The lack of a technique of interpretation which is scientifically
comprehensible must seriously limit the applicability of
Schemer's theory. Arbitrariness in dream interpretation
seems in no wise excluded, especially since a stimulus may be
expressed by several representations in the content of the
dream ; thus Schemer's associate, Volkelt, has already found
it impossible to confirm the representation of the body as a
house. Another objection is that here again dream activity
is attributed to the mind as a useless and aimless activity,
since according to the theory in question the mind is content
with forming phantasies about the stimulus with which it is
concerned, without even remotely contemplating anything
like a discharge of the stimulus.

But Schemer's theory of the symbolisation of bodily stimuli
by the dream receives a heavy blow from another objection.
These bodily stimuli are present at all times, and according to
general assumption the mind is more accessible to them during
sleep than in waking. It is thus incomprehensible why the
mind does not dream continually throughout the night, and
why it does not dream every night and about all the organs.
If one attempts to avoid this objection by making the condition
that especial stimuli must proceed from the eye, the ear, the
teeth, the intestines in order to arouse dream activity, one is

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 191

confronted by the difficulty of proving that this increase of
stimulation is objective, which is possible only in a small
number of cases. If the dream of flying is a symbolisation
of the upward and downward motion of the pulmonary lobes,
either this dream, as has already been remarked by Strümpell,
would be dreamt much oftener, or an accentuation of the
function of breathing during the dream would have to be
demonstrable. Still another case is possible — the most
probable of all — that now and then special motives directing
attention to the visceral sensations which are universally
present are active, but this case takes us beyond the range of
Schemer's theory.

The value of Schemer's and Volkelt's discussions lies in
the fact that they call attention to a number of characteristics
of the dream content which are in need of explanation, and
which seem to promise new knowledge. It is quite true that
symbolisations of organs of the body and of their functions
are contained in dreams, that water in a dream often signifies
a desire to urinate, that the male genital may often be repre-
sented by a staff standing erect or by a pillar, &c. In dreams
which show a very animated field of vision and brilliant
colours, in contrast to the dimness of other dreams, the inter-
pretation may hardly be dismissed that they are " dreams of
visual stimulation," any more than it may be disputed that
there is a contribution of illusory formations in dreams which
contain noise and confusion of voices. A dream like that of
Schemer, of two rows of fair handsome boys standing opposite
to each other on a bridge, attacking each other and then
taking their places again, until finally the dreamer himself
sits down on the bridge and pulls a long tooth out of his jaw ;
or a similar one of Volkelt's, in which two rows of drawers play
a part, and which again ends in the extraction of a tooth ;
dream formations of this sort, which are related in great
numbers by the authors, prevent our discarding Schemer's
theory as an idle fabrication without seeking to find its kernel
of truth. We are now confronted by the task of giving the
supposed symbolisation of the dental stimulus an explanation
of a different kind.

Throughout our consideration of the theory of the somatic
sources of dreams, I have refrained from urging the argument

192 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

which is inferred from our dream analyses. If we have suc-
ceeded in proving, by a procedure which other authors have
not applied in their investigation of dreams, that the dream
as a psychic action possesses value peculiar to itself, that a
wish supplies the motive for its formation, and that the experi-
ences of the previous day furnish the immediate material for
its content, any other theory of dreams neglecting such an
important method of investigation, and accordingly causing
the dream to appear a useless and problematic psychic reaction
to somatic stimuli, is dismissible without any particular
comment. Otherwise there must be — which is highly im-
probable— two entirely different kinds of dreams, of which
only one has come under our observation, while only the
other has been observed by the earlier connoisseurs of the
dream. It still remains to provide a place for the facts which
are used to support the prevailing theory of somatic dream-
stimuli, within our own theory of dreams.

We have already taken the first step in this direction in
setting up the thesis that the dream activity is under a com-
pulsion to elaborate all the dream stimuli which are simul-
taneously present into a unified whole (p. 151). We have
seen that when two or more experiences capable of making
an impression have been left over from the previous day, the
wishes which result from them are united into one dream ;
similarly, that an impression possessing psychic value and the
indifferent experiences of the previous day are united in the
dream material, provided there are available connecting ideas
between the two. Thus the dream appears to be a reaction to
everything which is simultaneously present as actual in the
sleeping mind. As far as we have hitherto analysed the
dream material, we have discovered it to be a collection of
psychic remnants and memory traces, which we were obliged
to credit (on account of the preference shown for recent and
infantile material) with a character of actuality, though the
nature of this was not at the time determinable. Now it will
not be difficult to foretell what will happen when new material
in the form of sensations is added to these actualities of
memory. These stimuli likewise derive importance for the
dream because they are actual ; they are united with the
other psychic actualities in order to make up the material for

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 193

dream formation. To express it differently, the stimuli
which appear during sleep are worked over into the fulfilment
of a wish, the other component parts of which are the remnants
of daily experience with which we are familiar. This union,
however, is not inevitable ; we have heard that more than one
sort of attitude towards bodily stimuli is possible during sleep.
Wherever this union has been brought about, it has simply
been possible to find for the dream content that kind of pre-
sentation material which will give representation to both
classes of dream sources, the somatic as well as the psychic.

The essential nature of the dream is not changed by this
addition of somatic material to the psychic sources of the
dream ; it remains the fulfilment of a wish without reference
to the way in which its expression is determined by the actual
material.

I shall gladly find room here for a number of peculiarities,
which serve to put a different face on the significance of exter-
nal stimuli for the dream. I imagine that a co-operation of
individual, physiological, and accidental factors, conditioned
by momentary circumstances, determines how one will act in
each particular case of intensive objective stimulation during
sleep ; the degree of the profoundness of sleep whether habitual
or accidental in connection with the intensity of the stimulus,
will in one case make it possible to suppress the stimulus, so
that it will not disturb sleep ; in another case they will force
an awakening or will support the attempt to overcome the
stimulus by weaving it into the texture of the dream. In
correspondence with the multiplicity of these combinations,
external objective stimuli will receive expression more frequently
in the case of one person than in that of another. In the case
of myself, who am an excellent sleeper, and who stubbornly
resists any kind of disturbance in sleep, this intermixture of
external causes of irritation into my dreams is very rare, while
psychic motives apparently cause me to dream very easily.
I have indeed noted only a single dream in which an objective,
painful source of stimulation is demonstrable, and it will be
highly instructive to see what effect the external stimulus had
in this very dream.

/ am riding on a grey horse, at first timidly and awkwardly,
as though I were only leaning against something. I meet a

N

194 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

colleague P., who is mounted on a horse and is wearing a heavy
woollen suit ; he calls my attention to something (probably to the
fact that my riding position is bad). Now I become more and
more expert on the horse, which is most intelligent; I sit com-
fortably, and I notice that I am already quite at home in the
saddle. For a saddle I have a kind of padding, which completely
fills the space between the neck and the rump of the horse. In
this manner I ride with difficulty between two lumber-wagons.
After having ridden up the street for some distance, I turn around
and want to dismount, at first in front of a little open chapel,
which is situated close to the street. Then I actually dismount in
front of a chapel which stands near the first ; the hotel is in the
same street, I could let the horse go there by itself, but I prefer to
lead it there. It seems as if I should be ashamed to arrive there
on horseback. In front of the hotel is standing a hall-boy who
shows me a card of mine which has been found, and who ridicules
me on account of it. On the card is written, doubly underlined,
" Eat nothing," and then a second sentence (indistinct) something
like " Do not work " ; at the same time a hazy idea that I am in a
strange city, in which I do no work.

It will not be apparent at once that this dream originated
under the influence, or rather under the compulsion, of a
stimulus of pain. The day before I had suffered from furuncles,
which made every movement a torture, and at last a furuncle
had grown to the size of an apple at the root of the scrotum,
and had caused me the most intolerable pains that accom-
panied every step ; a feverish lassitude, lack of appetite, and
the hard work to which I had nevertheless kept myself during
the day, had conspired with the pain to make me lose my
temper. I was not altogether in a condition to discharge my
duties as a physician, but in view of the nature and the location
of the malady, one might have expected some performance
other than riding, for which I was very especially unfitted.
It is this very activity, of riding into which I am plunged by
the dream ; it is the most energetic denial of the suffering
which is capable of being conceived. In the first place, I do
not know how to ride, I do not usually dream of it, and I
never sat on a horse but once — without a saddle — and then I
did not feel comfortable. But in this dream I ride as though
I 'had no furuncle on the perineum, and why ? just because I

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 195

don't want any. According to the description my saddle is
the poultice which has made it possible for me to go to sleep.
Probably I did not feel anything of my pain — as I was thus
taken care of — during the first few hours of sleeping. Then
the painful sensations announced themselves and tried to
wake me up, whereupon the dream came and said soothingly :
" Keep on sleeping, you won't wake up anyway ! You have
no furuncle at all, for you are riding on a horse, and with a
furuncle where you have it riding is impossible ! " And the
dream was successful ; the pain was stifled, and I went on
sleeping.

But the dream was not satisfied with " suggesting away "
the furuncle by means of tenaciously adhering to an idea
incompatible with that of the malady, in doing which it behaved
like the hallucinatory insanity of the mother who has lost her
child, or like the merchant who has been deprived of his
fortune by losses.* In addition the details of the denied
sensation and of the image which is used to displace it are
employed by the dream as a means to connect the material
ordinarily actually present in the mind with the dream situa-
tion, and to give this material representation. I am riding
on a grey horse — the colour of the horse corresponds exactly
to the pepper-and-salt costume in which I last met my colleague
P. in the country. I have been warned that highly seasoned
food is the cause of furunculosis, but in any case it is preferable
as an etiological explanation to sugar which ordinarily suggests
furunculosis. My friend P. has been pleased to " ride the high
horse " with regard to me, ever since he superseded me in the
treatment of a female patient, with whom I had performed
great feats (in the dream I first sit on the horse side-saddle
fashion, like a circus rider), but who really led me wherever
she wished, like the horse in the anecdote about the Sunday
equestrian. Thus the horse came to be a symbolic representa-
tion of a lady patient (in the dream it is most intelligent).
" I feel quite at home up here," refers to the position which I
occupied in the patient's household until I was replaced by my
colleague P. "I thought you were securely seated in the

* Of. the passage in Griesinger31 and the remarks in my second essay on
the ""defence-neuropsychoses" — Selected Papers on Hysteria, translated by
A. A. Brill. t j , y

196 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

saddle," one of my few well-wishers among the great physicians
of this city recently said to me with reference to the same
household. And it was a feat to practise psychotherapy for
ten hours a day with such pains, but I know that I cannot
continue my particularly difficult work for any length of time
without complete physical health, and the dream is full of
gloomy allusions to the situation which must in that case
result (the card such as neurasthenics have and present to
doctors) : No work and no food. With further interpretation
I see that the dream activity has succeeded in finding the
way from the wish-situation of riding to very early infantile
scenes of quarrelling, which must have taken place between
me and my nephew, who is now living in England, and who,
moreover, is a year older than I. Besides it has taken up
elements from my journeys to Italy ; the street in the dream
is composed of impressions of Verona and Siena. Still more
exhaustive interpretation leads to sexual dream-thoughts,
and I recall what significance dream allusions to that beautiful
country had in the case of a female patient who had never been
in Italy (Itlay — German gen Italien — Genitalien — genitals).
At the same time there are references to the house in which I
was physician before my friend P., and to the place where the
furuncle is located.

Among the dreams mentioned in the previous chapter
there are several which might serve as examples for the elabora-
tion of so-called nerve stimuli. The dream about drinking in
full draughts is one of this sort ; the somatic excitement in it
seems to be the only source of the dream, and the wish resulting
from the sensation — thirst — the only motive for dreaming.
Something similar is true of the other simple dreams, if the
somatic excitement alone is capable of forming a wish. The
dream of the sick woman who throws the cooling apparatus
from her cheek at night is an instance of a peculiar way of
reacting to painful excitements with a wish-fulfilment ; it
seems as though the patient had temporarily succeeded in
making herself analgesic by ascribing her pains to a stranger.

My dream about the three Parese is obviously a dream of
hunger, but it has found means to refer the need for food back
to the longing of the child for its mother's breast, and to make
the harmless desire a cloak for a more serious one, which is

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 197

not permitted to express itself so openly. In the dream about
Count Thun we have seen how an accidental bodily desire is
brought into connection with the strongest, and likewise the
most strongly suppressed emotions of the psychic life. And
when the First Consul incorporates the sound of an exploding
bomb into a dream of battle before it causes him to wake, as
in the case reported by Gamier, the purpose for which psychic
activity generally concerns itself with sensations occurring
during sleep is revealed with extraordinary clearness. A young
lawyer, who has been deeply preoccupied with his first great
bankruptcy proceeding, and who goes to sleep during the
afternoon following, acts just like the great Napoleon. He
dreams about a certain G. Reich in Hussiatyn (German husten —
to cough), whom he knows in connection with the bankruptcy
proceeding, but Hussiatyn forces itself upon his attention still
further, with the result that he is obliged to awaken, and hears
his wife — who is suffering from bronchial catarrh — coughing
violently.

Let us compare the dream of Napoleon I., who, incidentally,
was an excellent sleeper, with that of the sleepy student, who
was awakened by his landlady with the admonition that he
must go to the hospital, who thereupon dreams himself into
a bed in the hospital, and then sleeps on, with the following
account of his motives : If I am already in the hospital, I
shan't have to get up in order to go there. The latter is
obviously a dream of convenience ; the sleeper frankly admits
to himself the motive for his dreaming ; but he thereby
reveals one of the secrets of dreaming in general. In a certain
sense all dreams are dreams of convenience ; they serve the
purpose of continuing sleep instead of awakening. The dream
is the guardian of sleep, not the disturber of it. We shaE justify
this conception with respect to the psychic factors of awakening
elsewhere ; it is possible, however, at this point to prove its
applicability to the influence exerted by objective external
excitements. Either the mind does not concern itself at all
with the causes of sensations, if it is able to do this in spite of
their intensity and of their significance, which is well understood
by it ; or it employs the dream to deny these stimuli ; or
thirdly, if it is forced to recognise the stimulus, it seeks to find
that interpretation of the stimulus which shall represent the

198 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

actual sensation as a component part of a situation which is
desired and which is compatible with sleep. The actual sen-
sation is woven into the dream in order to deprive it of its
reality. Napoleon is permitted to go on sleeping ; it is only a
dream recollection of the thunder of the cannon at Arcole
which is trying to disturb him.*

The wish to sleep, by which the conscious ego has been sus-
pended and which along with the dream-censor contributes its
share to the dream, must thus always be taken into account as a
motive for the formation of dreams, and every successful dream
is a fulfilment of this wish. The relation of this general, re-
gularly present, and invariable sleep-wish to the other wishes,
of which now the one, now the other is fulfilled, will be the
subject of a further explanation. In the wish to sleep we
have discovered a factor capable of supplying the deficiency
in the theory of Strümpell and Wundt, and of explaining the
perversity and capriciousness in the interpretation of the
outer stimulus. The correct interpretation, of which the
sleeping mind is quite capable, would imply an active interest
and would require that sleep be terminated ; hence, of those
interpretations which are possible at all, only those are ad-
mitted which are agreeable to the absolute censorship of the
somatic wish. It is something like this : It's the nightingale
and not the lark. For if it's the lark, love's night is at an
end. From among the interpretations of the excitement
which are at the moment possible, that one is selected which
can secure the best connection with the wish-possibilities that
are lying in wait in the mind. Thus everything is definitely
determined, and nothing is left to caprice. The misinter-
pretation is not an illusion, but — if you will — an excuse.
Here again, however, there is admitted an action which is a
modification of the normal psychic procedure, as in the case
where substitution by means of displacement is effected for
the purposes of the dream-censor.

If the outer nerve stimuli and inner bodily stimuli are
sufficiently intense to compel psychic attention, they represent
— that is, in case they result in dreaming and not in awakening
— a definite point in the formation of dreams, a nucleus in the

* In the two sources from which I am acquainted with this dream, the
report of its contents do not agree.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 199

dream material, for which an appropriate wish-fulfilment is
sought, in a way similar (see above) to the search for connecting
ideas between two dream stimuli. To this extent it is true
for a number of dreams that the somatic determines what their
content is to be. In this extreme case a wish which is not
exactly actual is aroused for the purpose of dream formation.
But the dream can do nothing but represent a wish in a situa-
tion as fulfilled ; it is, as it were, confronted by the task of
seeking what wish may be represented and fulfilled by means
of the situation which is now actual. Even if this actual
material is of a painful or disagreeable character, still it is not
useless for the purposes of dream formation. The psychic
life has control even over wishes the fulfilment of which brings
forth pleasure — a statement which seems contradictory, but
which becomes intelligible if one takes into account the presence
of two psychic instances and the censor existing between
them.

There are in the psychic life, as we have heard, repressed
wishes which belong to the first system, and to whose fulfilment
the second system is opposed. There are wishes of this kind —
and we do not mean this in an historic sense, that there have
been such wishes and that these have then been destroyed —
but the theory of repression, which is essential to the study of
psychoneurosis, asserts that such repressed wishes still exist,
contemporaneously with an inhibition weighing them down.
Language has hit upon the truth when it speaks of the " sup-
pression " of such impulses. The psychic contrivance for
bringing such wishes to realisation remains preserved and in a
condition to be used. But if it happens that such a suppressed
wish is fulfilled, the vanquished inhibition of the second
system (which is capable of becoming conscious) is then ex-
pressed as a painful feeling. To close this discussion ; if
sensations of a disagreeable character which originate from
somatic sources are presented during sleep, this constellation
is taken advantage of by the dream activity to represent the
fulfilment — with more or less retention of the censor — of an
otherwise suppressed wish.

This condition of affairs makes possible a number of anxiety
dreams, while another series of the dream formations which
are unfavourable to the wish theory exhibits a different

200 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

mechanism. For anxiety in dreams may be of a psycho-
neurotic nature, or it may originate in psychosexual excite-
ments, in which case the anxiety corresponds to a repressed
libido. Then this anxiety as well as the whole anxiety dream
has the significance of a neurotic symptom, and we are at the
dividing-line where the wish-fulfilling tendency of dreams
disappears. But in other anxiety-dreams the feeling of anxiety
comes from somatic sources (for instance in the case of persons
suffering from pulmonary or heart trouble, where there is
occasional difficulty in getting breath), and then it is used to
aid those energetically suppressed wishes in attaining fulfil-
ment in the form of a dream, the dreaming of which from
psychic motives would have resulted in the same release of
fear. It is not difficult to unite these two apparently dis-
crepant cases. Of two psychic formations, an emotional
inclination and an ideal content, which are intimately con-
nected, the one, which is presented as actual, supports the
other in the dream ; now anxiety of somatic origin supports
the suppressed presentation content, now the ideal content,
which is freed from suppression, and which proceeds with the
impetus given by sexual emotion, assists the discharge of
anxiety. Of the one case it may be said that an emotion of
somatic origin is psychically interpreted ; in the other case
everything is of psychic origin but the content which has been
suppressed is easily replaced by a somatic interpretation which
is suited to anxiety. The difficulties which lie in the way of
understanding all this have little to do with the dream ; they
are due to the fact that in discussing these points we are
touching upon the problems of the development of anxiety
and of repression.

Undoubtedly the aggregate of bodily feelings is to be
included among the commanding dream stimuli which originate
internally. Not that it is able to furnish the dream content,
but it forces the dream thoughts to make a choice from the
material destined to serve the purpose of representation in the
dream content ; it does this by putting within easy reach
that part of the material which is suited to its own character,
while withholding the other. Moreover this general feeling,
which is left over from the day, is probably connected with the
psychic remnants which are significant for the dream.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 201

If somatic sources of excitement occurring during sleep —
that is, the sensations of sleep — are not of unusual intensity,
they play a part in the formation of dreams similar, in my
judgment, to that of the impressions of the day which have
remained recent but indifferent. I mean that they are drawn
into the dream formation, if they are qualified for being united
with the presentation content of the psychic dream-source,
but in no other case. They are treated as a cheap ever-ready
material, which is utilised as often as it is needed, instead of
prescribing, as a precious material does, the manner in which
it is to be utilised. The case is similar to that where a patron
of art brings to an artist a rare stone, a fragment of onyx, in
order that a work of art may be made of it. The size of the
stone, its colour, and its marking help to decide what bust or
what scene shall be represented in it, while in the case where
there is a uniform and abundant supply of marble or sandstone
the artist follows only the idea which takes shape in his mind.
Only in this manner, it seems to me, is the fact explicable
that the dream content resulting from bodily excitements
that have not been accentuated to a usual degree, does not
appear in all dreams and during every night.

Perhaps an example, which takes us back to the interpreta-
tion of dreams, will best illustrate my meaning. One day I
was trying to understand the meaning of the sensations of
being impeded, of not being able to move from the spot, of
not being able to get finished, &c, which are dreamt about so
often, and which are so closely allied to anxiety. That night
I had the following dream : / am very incompletely dressed,
and I go from a dwelling on the ground floor up a flight of stairs
to an upper story. In doing this I jump over three steps at a
time, and I am glad to find I can mount the steps so quickly.
Suddenly I see that a servant girl is coming down the stairs,
that is, towards me. I am ashamed and try to hurry away, and
now there appears that sensation of being impeded ; I am glued
to the steps and cannot move from the spot.

Analysis : The situation of the dream is taken from every-
day reality. In a house in Vienna I have two apartments,
which are connected only by a flight of stairs outside. My
consultation-rooms and my study are on an elevated portion
of the ground floor, and one story higher are my living-rooms.

202 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

When I have finished my work downstairs late at night, I
go up the steps into my bedroom. On the evening before the
dream I had actually gone this short distance in a somewhat
disorderly attire — that is to say, I had taken off my collar,
cravat, and cuffs ; but in the dream this has changed into a
somewhat more advanced degree of undress, which as usual
is indefinite. Jumping over the steps is my usual method of
mounting stairs ; moreover it is the fulfilment of a wish that
has been recognised in the dream, for I have reassured myself
about the condition of my heart action by the ease of this
accomplishment. Moreover the manner in which I climb the
stairs is an effective contrast to the sensation of being impeded
which occurs in the second half of the dream. It shows me —
something which needed no proof — that the dream has no
difficulty in representing motor actions as carried out fully
and completely ; think of flying in dreams !

But the stairs which I go up are not those of my house ; at
first I do not recognise them ; only the person coming toward
me reveals to me the location which they are intended to
signify. This woman is the maid of the old lady whom I
visit twice daily to give hypodermic injections ; the stairs,
too, are quite similar to those which I must mount there twice
daily.

How do this flight of stairs and this woman get into my
dream ? Being ashamed because one is not fully dressed, is
undoubtedly of a sexual character ; the servant of whom I
dream is older than I, sulky, and not in the least attractive.
These questions call up exactly the following occurrences :
When I make my morning visit at this house I am usually
seized with a desire to clear my throat ; the product of the
expectoration falls upon the steps. For there is no spittoon
on either of these floors, and I take the view that the stairs
should not be kept clean at my expense, but by the provision
of a spittoon. The housekeeper, likewise an elderly and sulky
person, with instincts for cleanliness, takes another view of
the matter. She lies in wait for me to see whether I take
the liberty referred to, and when she has made sure of it, I
hear her growl distinctly. For days thereafter she refuses to
show me her customary regard when we meet. On the day
before the dream the position of the housekeeper had been

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 203

strengthened by the servant girl. I had just finished my usual
hurried visit to the patient when the servant confronted me in
the ante-room and observed : " You might as well have wiped
your shoes to-day, doctor, before you came into the room.
The red carpet is all dirty again from your feet." This is the
whole claim which the flight of stairs and the servant-girl
can make for appearing in my dream.

An intimate connection exists between my flying over the
stairs and my spitting on the stairs. Pharyngitis and diseases
of the heart are both said to be punishments for the vice of
smoking, on account of which vice, of course, I do not enjoy a
reputation for great neatness with my housekeeper in the one
house any more than in the other, both of which the dream
fuses into a single image.

I must postpone the further interpretation of this dream
until I can give an account of the origm of the typical dream of
incomplete dress. I only note as a prehminary result from
the dream which has just been cited that the dream sensation
of inhibited action is always aroused at a point where a certain
connection requires it. A peculiar condition of my motility
during sleep cannot be the cause of this dream content, for a
moment before I saw myself hurrying over the steps with ease,
as though in confirmation of this fact.

(d) Typical Dreams

In general we are not in a position to interpret the dream of
another person if he is unwilling to furnish us with the uncon-
scious thoughts which lie behind the dream content, and for
this reason the practical applicability of our method of dream
interpretation is seriously curtailed.* But there are a certain
number of dreams — in contrast with the usual freedom dis-
played by the individual in fashioning his dream world with
characteristic peculiarity, and thereby making it unintelligible
— which almost every one has dreamed in the same manner,
and of which we are accustomed to assume that they have
the same significance in the case of every dreamer. A peculiar

* An exception is furnished by those cases in which the dreamer utilises
in the expression of his latent dream thoughts the symbols which are
familiar to us.

204 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

interest belongs to these typical dreams for the reason that
they probably all come from the same sources with every
person, that they are thus particularly suited to give us
information upon the sources of dreams.

Typical dreams are worthy of the most exhaustive investi-
gation. I shall, however, only give a somewhat detailed con-
sideration to examples of this species, and for this purpose I
shall first select the so-called embarrassment dream of naked-
ness, and the dream of the death of dear relatives.

The dream of being naked or scantily clad in the presence
of strangers occurs with the further addition that one is not
at all ashamed of it, &c. But the dream of nakedness is worthy
of our interest only when shame and embarrassment are felt
in it, when one wishes to flee or to hide, and when one feels the
strange inhibition that it is impossible to move from the spot
and that one is incapable of altering the disagreeable situation.
It is only in this connection that the dream is typical ; the
nucleus of its content may otherwise be brought into all kinds
of relations or may be replaced by individual amplifications.
It is essentially a question of a disagreeable sensation of the
nature of shame, the wish to be able to hide one's nakedness,
chiefly by means of locomotion, without being able to accom-
plish this. I believe that the great majority of my readers
will at some time have found themselves in this situation in a
dream.

Usually the nature and maimer of the experience is indis-
tinct. It is usually reported, " I was in my shirt," but this
is rarely a clear image ; in most cases the lack of clothing is so
indeterminate that it is designated in the report of the dream
by a set of alternatives : "I was in my chemise or in my
petticoat." As a rule the deficiency in the toilet is not serious
enough to justify the feeling of shame attached to it. For a
person who has served in the army, nakedness is often replaced
by a mode of adjustment that is contrary to regulations. " I
am on the street without my sabre and I see officers coming,"
or " I am without my necktie," or " I am wearing checkered
civilian's trousers," &c.

The persons before whom one is ashamed are almost always
strangers with faces that have been left undetermined. It
never occurs in the typical dream that one is reproved or even

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 205

noticed on account of the dress which causes the embarrass-
ment to one's self. Quite on the contrary, the people have an
air of indifference, or, as I had opportunity to observe in a
particularly clear dream, they look stiffly solemn. This is
worth thinking about.

The shamed embarrassment of the dreamer and the in-
difference of the spectators form a contradiction which often
occurs in the dream. It would better accord with the feelings
of the dreamer if the strangers looked at him in astonishment
and laughed at him, or if they grew indignant. I think,
however, that the latter unpleasant feature has been obviated
by the tendency to wish-fulfilment, while the embarrassment,
being retained on some account or other, has been left standing,
and thus the two parts fail to agree. We have interesting
evidence to show that the dream, whose appearance has been
partially disfigured by the tendency to wish-fulfilment, has not
been properly understood. For it has become the basis of a
fairy tale familiar to us all in Andersen's version,* and it has
recently received poetic treatment by L. Fulda in the Talisman.
In Andersen's fairy tale we are told of two impostors who
weave a costly garment for the Emperor, which, however, shall
be visible only to the good and true. The Emperor goes forth
clad in this invisible garment, and, the fabric serving as a sort
of touchstone, all the people are frightened into acting as
though they did not notice the nakedness of the Emperor.

But such is the situation in our dream. It does not require
great boldness to assume that the unintelligible dream content
has suggested the invention of a state of undress in which the
situation that is being remembered becomes significant. This
situation has then been deprived of its original meaning, and
placed at the service of other purposes. But we shall see
that such misunderstanding of the dream content often occurs
on account of the conscious activity of the second psychic
system, and is to be recognised as a factor in the ultimate
formation of the dream ; furthermore, that in the develop-
ment of the obsessions and phobias similar misunderstandings,
likewise within the same psychic personality, play a leading
part. The source from which in our dream the material
for this transformation is taken can also be explained. The
* " The Emperor's New Clothes."

206 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

impostor is the dream, the Emperor is the dreamer himself, and
the moralising tendency betrays a hazy knowledge of the fact
that the latent dream content is occupied with forbidden
wishes which have become the victims of repression. The
connection in which such dreams appear during my analysis
of neurotics leaves no room for doubting that the dream is
based upon a recollection from earliest childhood. Only in
our childhood was there a time when we were seen by our
relatives as well as by strange nurses, servant girls, and visitors,
in scanty clothing, and at that time we were not ashamed of
our nakedness.*

It may be observed in the case of children who are a little
older that being undressed has a kind of intoxicating effect
upon them, instead of making them ashamed. They laugh,
jump about, and strike their bodies ; the mother, or whoever
is present, forbids them to do this, and says : " Fie, that is
shameful — you mustn't do that." Children often show ex-
hibitional cravings ; it is hardly possible to go through a
village in our part of the country without meeting a two or
three-year-old tot who lifts up his or her shirt before the
traveller, perhaps in his honour. One of my patients has
reserved in his conscious memory a scene from the eighth year
of his life in which he had just undressed previous to going to
bed, and was about to dance into the room of his little sister
in his undershirt when the servant prevented his doing it.
In the childhood history of neurotics, denudation in the
presence of children of the opposite sex plays a great part ; in
paranoia the desire to be observed while dressing and un-
dressing may be directly traced to these experiences ; among
those remaining perverted there is a class which has accen-
tuated the childish impulse to a compulsion — they are the
exhibitionists.

This age of childhood in which the sense of shame is lacking
seems to our later recollections a Paradise, and Paradise itself
is nothing but a composite phantasy from the childhood of
the individual. It is for this reason, too, that in Paradise
human beings are naked and are not ashamed until the moment
arrives when the sense of shame and of fear are aroused ; ex-

* The child also appears in the fairy tale, for there a child suddenly
calls : " Why, he hasn't anything on at all."

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 207

pulsion follows, and sexual life and cultural development
begin. Into this Paradise the dream can take us back every
night ; we have already ventured the conjecture that the
impressions from earliest childhood (from the prehistoric
period until about the end of the fourth year) in themselves,
and independently of everything else, crave reproduction,
perhaps without further reference to their content, and that
the repetition of them is the fulfilment of a wish. Dreams of
nakedness, then, are exhibition dreams.*

One's own person, which is seen not as that of a child, but
as belonging to the present, and the idea of scanty clothing,
which became buried beneath so many later nfyligSe recollec-
tions or because of the censor, turns out to be obscure — these
two things constitute the nucleus of the exhibition dream.
Next come the persons before whom one is ashamed. I
know of no example where the actual spectators at those
infantile exhibitions reappear in the dream. For the dream
is hardly ever a simple recollection. Strangely enough, those
persons who are the objects of our sexual interest during child-
hood are omitted from all the reproductions of the dream, of
hysteria, and of the compulsion neurosis ; paranoia alone
puts the spectators back into their places, and is fanatically
convinced of their presence, although they remain invisible.
What the dream substitutes for these, the " many strange
peor)le, " who take no notice of the spectacle which is presented,
is exactly the wish-opposite of that single, intimate person for
whom the exposure was intended. " Many strange people,"
moreover, are often found in the dream in any other favourable
connection ; as a wish-opposite they a] ways signify " a secret." |
It may be seen how the restoration of the old condition of
affairs, as it occurs in paranoia, is subject to this antithesis.
One is no longer alone. One is certainly being watched, but
the spectators are " many strange, curiously indeterminate
people."

Furthermore, repression has a place in the exhibition

* Ferenczi has reported a number of interesting dreams of nakedness
in women which could be traced to an infantile desire to exhibit, but which
differ in some features from the " typical " dream of nakedness discussed
above.

t For obvious reasons the presence of the "whole family" in the dream
has the same significance.

208 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

dream. For the disagreeable sensation of the dream is
the reaction of the second psychic instance to the fact
that the exhibition scene which has been rejected by it
has in spite of this succeeded in securing representation.
The only way to avoid this sensation would be not to revive
the scene.

Later on we shall again deal with the sensation of being
inhibited. It serves the dream excellently in representing
the conflict of the will, the negation. According to our un-
conscious purpose exhibition is to be continued ; according to
the demands of the censor, it is to be stopped.

The relation of our typical dreams to fairy tales anbl to
other poetic material is neither a sporadic nor an accidental
one. Occasionally the keen insight of a poet has analytically
recognised the transforming process — of which the poet is
usually the tool — and has followed it backwards, that is to
say, traced it to the dream. A friend has called my attention
to the following passage in G. Keller's Der Grüne Heinrich :
" I do not wish, dear Lee, that you should ever come to realise
from experience the peculiar piquant truth contained in the
situation of Odysseus, when he appears before Nausikaa and
her playmates, naked and covered with mud ! Would you
like to know what it means ? Let us consider the incident
closely. If you are ever separated from your home, and from
everything that is dear to you, and wander about in a strange
country, when you have seen and experienced much, when you
have cares and sorrows, and are, perhaps, even miserable and
forlorn, you will some night inevitably dream that you are
approaching your home ; you will see it shining and beaming
in the most beautiful colours ; charming, delicate and lovely
figures will come to meet you ; and you will suddenly discover
that you are going about in rags, naked and covered with dust.
A nameless feeling of shame and fear seizes you, you try to
cover yourself and to hide, and you awaken bathed in sweat.
As long as men exist, this will be the dream of the care-laden,
fortune-battered man, and thus Homer has taken his situation
from the profoundest depths of the eternal character of
humanity."

This profound and eternal character of humanity, upon
the touching of which in his listeners the poet usually calculates,

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 209

is made up of the stirrings of the spirit which are rooted in
childhood, in the period which later becomes prehistoric.
Suppressed and forbidden wishes of childhood break forth
under cover of those wishes of the homeless man which are
unobjectionable and capable of becoming conscious, and for
that reason the dream which is made objective in the legend
of Nausikaa regularly assumes the form of a dream of
anxiety.

My own dream, mentioned on p. 201, of hurrying up the
stairs, which is soon afterward changed into that of being glued
to the steps, is likewise an exhibition dream, because it shows
the essential components of such a dream. It must thus
permit of being referred to childish experiences, and the
possession of these ought to tell us how far the behaviour of
the servant girl towards me — her reproach that I had soiled
the carpet — helped her to secure the position which she occupies
in the dream. I am now able to furnish the desired explana-
tion. One learns in psychoanalysis to interpret temporal
proximity by objective connection ; two thoughts, apparently
without connection, which immediately follow one another,
belong to a unity which can be inferred ; just as an a and a t,
which I write down together, should be pronounced as one
syllable, at. The same is true of the relation of dreams to one
another. The dream just cited, of the stairs, has been taken
from a series of dreams, whose other members I am familiar
with on account of having interpreted them. The dream which
is included in this series must belong to the same connection.
Now the other dreams of the series are based upon the recol-
lection of a nurse to whom I was entrusted from some time in
the period when I was suckling to the age of two and a half
years, and of whom a hazy recollection has remained in my
consciousness. According to information which I have re-
cently obtained from my mother, she was old and ugly, but
very intelligent and thorough ; according to inferences which
I may draw from my dreams, she did not always give me the
kindest treatment, and said hard words to me when I showed
insufficient aptitude for education in cleanliness. Thus by
attempting to continue this educational work the servant
girl develops a claim to be treated by me, in the dream, as an
incarnation of the prehistoric old woman. It is to be assumed

o

210 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that the child bestowed his love upon this governess in spite
of her bad treatment of him.*

Another series of dreams which might be called typical are
those which have the content that a dear relative, parent,
brother, or sister, child or the like, has died. Two classes of
these dreams must immediately be distinguished — those in
which the dreamer remains unaffected by sorrow while dream-
ing, and those in which he feels profound grief on account of
the death, in which he even expresses this grief during sleep
by fervid tears.

We may ignore the dreams of the first group ; they have
no claim to be reckoned as typical. If they are analysed, it is
found that they signify something else than what they contain,
that they are intended to cover up some other wish. Thus it
is with the dream of the aunt who sees the only son of her
sister lying on a bier before her (p 129). This does not signify
that she wishes the death of her little nephew ; it only con-
ceals, as we have learned, a wish to see a beloved person once
more after long separation — the same person whom she had
seen again after a similar long intermission at the funeral of
another nephew. This wish, which is the real content of
the dream, gives no cause for sorrow, and for that reason no
sorrow is felt in the dream. It may be seen in this case that
the emotion which is contained in the dream does not belong
to the manifest content of the dream, but to the latent one,
and that the emotional content has remained free from the
disfigurement which has befallen the presentation content.

It is a different story with the dreams in which the death
of a beloved relative is imagined and where sorrowful emotion
is felt. These signify, as their content says, the wish that the
person in question may die, and as I may here expect that the
feelings of all readers and of all persons who have dreamt
anything similar will object to my interpretation, I must
strive to present my proof on the broadest possible basis.

We have already had one example to show that the wishes

* A supplementary interpretation of this dream : To spit on the stairs,
led me to "esprit d'escalier" by a free translation, owing to the fact that
" Spucken " (English : spit, and also to act like a spoolc, to haunt) is an occu-
pation of ghosts. " Stair-wit " is ecpiivalent to lack of quickness at repartee
(German : Schlagerfert/igheit — readiness to hit back, to strike), with which I
must really reproach myself. Is it a question, however, whether the nurse
was lacking in " readiness to hit " ?

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 211

represented in the dream as fulfilled are not always actual
wishes. They may also be dead, discarded, covered, and re-
pressed wishes, which we must nevertheless credit with a sort
of continuous existence on account of their reappearance in
the dream. They are not dead like persons who have died in
our sense, but they resemble the shades in the Odyssey which
awaken a certain kind of life as soon as they have drunk blood.
In the dream of the dead child in the box (p. 130) we were
concerned with a wish that had been actual fifteen years
before, and which had been frankly admitted from that time.
It is, perhaps, not unimportant from the point of view of dream
theory if I add that a recollection from earliest childhood is at
the basis even of this dream. While the dreamer was a little
child — it cannot be definitely determined at what time — she
had heard that during pregnancy of which she was the fruit
her mother had fallen into a profound depression of spirits
and had passionately wished for the death of her child before
birth. Having grown up herself and become pregnant, she
now follows the example of her mother.

If some one dreams with expressions of grief that his
father or mother, his brother or sister, has died, I shall not
use the dream as a proof that he wishes them dead now.
The theory of the dreams does not require so much ; it is
satisfied with concluding that the dreamer has wished them
dead — at some one time in childhood. I fear, however, that
this limitation will not contribute much to quiet the objectors ;
they might just as energetically contest the possibility that
they have ever had such thoughts as they are sure that they
do not cherish such wishes at present. I must, therefore,
reconstruct a part of the submerged infantile psychology on
the basis of the testimony which the present still furnishes.*

Let us at first consider the relation of children to their
brothers and sisters. I do not know why we presuppose that
it must be a loving one, since examples of brotherly and sisterly
enmity among adults force themselves upon every one's ex-
perience, and since we so often know that this estrangement
originated even during childhood or has always existed. But

* Gf. " Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben " in the Jahrbuch
für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, vol. i., 1909, and
" Ueber infantile Sexualtheorien," in Sexualprobleme, vol. i., 1908.

212 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

many grown-up people, who to-day are tenderly attached to
their brothers and sisters and stand by them, have lived with
them during childhood in almost uninterrupted hostility.
The older child has ill-treated the younger, slandered it, and
deprived it of its toys ; the younger has been consumed by
helpless fury against the elder, has envied it and feared it,
or its first impulse toward liberty and first feelings of injustice
have been directed against the oppressor. The parents say
that the children do not agree, and cannot find the reason for
it. It is not difficult to see that the character even of a well-
behaved child is not what we wish to find in a grown-up person.
The child is absolutely egotistical ; it feels its wants acutely
and strives remorselessly to satisfy them, especially with its
competitors, other children, and in the first instance with its
brothers and sisters. For doing this we do not call the child
wicked — we call it naughty ; it is not responsible for its evil
deeds either in our judgment or in the eyes of the penal law.
And this is justifiably so ; for we may expect that within
this very period of life which we call childhood, altruistic
impulses and morality will come to life in the little egotist,
and that, in the words of Meynert, a secondary ego will overlay
and restrain the primary one. It is true that morality does
not develop simultaneously in all departments, and further-
more, the duration of the unmoral period of childhood is of
different length in different individuals. In cases where the
development of this morality fails to appear, we are pleased
to talk about " degeneration " ; they are obviously cases of
arrested development. Where the primary character has
already been covered up by later development, it may be at
least partially uncovered again by an attack of hysteria. The
correspondence between the so-called hysterical character
and that of a naughty child is strikingly evident. A com-
pulsion neurosis, on the other hand, corresponds to a super-
morality, imposed upon the primary character that is again
asserting itself, as an increased check.

Many persons, then, who love their brothers and sisters,
and who would feel bereaved by their decease, have evil wishes
towards them from earlier times in their unconscious wishes,
which are capable of being realised in the dream. It is
particularly interesting to observe little children up to three

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 213

years old in their attitude towards their brothers and sisters.
So far the child has been the only one ; he is now informed that
the stork has brought a new child. The younger surveys the
arrival, and then expresses his opinion decidedly : " The stork
had better take it back again." *

I subscribe in all seriousness to the opinion that the child
knows enough to calculate the disadvantage it has to expect
on account of the new-comer. I know in the case of a lady of
my acquaintance who agrees very well with a sister four years
younger than herself, that she responded to the news of her
younger sister's arrival with the following words : " But I
shan't give her my red cap, anyway." If the child comes to
this realisation only at a later time, its enmity will be aroused
at that point. I know of a case where a girl, not yet three
years old, tried to strangle a suckling in the cradle, because
its continued presence, she suspected, boded her no good.
Children are capable of envy at this time of life in all its in-
tensity and distinctness. Again, perhaps, the little brother or
sister has really soon disappeared ; the child has again drawn
the entire affection of the household to itself, and then a new
child is sent by the stork ; is it then unnatural for the favourite
to wish that the new competitor may have the same fate as
the earlier one, in order that he may be treated as well as he
was before during the interval ? Of course this attitude of
the child towards the younger infant is under normal circum-
stances a simple function of the difference of age. After a
certain time the maternal instincts of the girl will be excited
towards the helpless new-born child.

Feelings of enmity towards brothers and sisters must occur
far more frequently during the age of childhood than is noted
by the dull observation of adults.

In case of my own children, who followed one another
rapidly, I missed the opportunity to make such observations ;
I am now retrieving it through my little nephew, whose com-
plete domination was disturbed after fifteen months by the

* The three-and-a-half-year-old Hans, whose phobia is the subject of
analysis in the above-mentioned publication, cries during fever shortly after
the birth of his sister : " I don't want a little sister." In his neurosis, one
and a half years later, he frankly confesses the wish that the mother should
drop the little one into the bath-tub while bathing it, in order that it may die.
With all this, Hans is a good-natured, affectionate child, wiio soon becomes
fond of his sister, and likes especially to take her under his protectiou.

214 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

arrival of a female competitor. I hear, it is true, that the
young man acts very chivalrously towards his little sister, that
he kisses her hand and pets her ; but in spite of this I have
convinced myself that even before the completion of his
second year he is using his new facility in language to criticise
this person who seems superfluous to him. Whenever the
conversation turns upon her, he chimes in and cries angrily :
" Too (l)ittle, too (l)ittle." During the last few months, since
the child has outgrown this unfavourable criticism, owing to
its splendid development, he has found another way of justify-
ing his insistence that she does not deserve so much attention.
On all suitable occasions he reminds us, " She hasn't any
teeth." * We have all preserved the recollection of the eldest
daughter of another sister of mine — how the child which was
at that time six years old sought assurance from one aunt
after another for an hour and a half with the question : " Lucy
can't understand that yet, can she ? " Lucy was the com-
petitor, two and a half years younger.

I have never failed in any of my female patients to find
this dream of the death of brothers and sisters denoting
exaggerated hostility. I have met with only one exception,
which could easily be reinterpreted into a confirmation of the
rule. Once in the course of a sitting while I was explaining
this condition of affairs to a lady, as it seemed to have a bear-
ing upon the symptoms under consideration, she answered, to
my astonishment, that she had never had such dreams. How-
ever, she thought of another dream which supposedly had
nothing to do with the matter — a dream which she had first
dreamed at the age of four, when she was the youngest child,
and had since dreamed repeatedly. " A great number of
children, all of them the dreamer's brothers and sisters, and
male and female cousins, were romping about in a meadow.
Suddenly they all got wings, flew up, and were gone." She
had no idea of the significance of the dream ; but it will not
be difficult for us to recognise it as a dream of the death of all
the brothers and sisters, in its original form, and little in-
fluenced by the censor. I venture to insert the following
interpretation : At the death of one out of a large number of

* The three-and-a-half-year old Hans embodies his crushing criticism of
his little sister in the identical word (see previous notes). He assumes that
she ia unable to speak on account of her lack of teeth.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 215

children — in this case the children of two brothers were brought
up in common as brothers and sisters — is it not probable that
our dreamer, at that time not yet four years old, asked a wise,
grown-up person : " What becomes of children when they
are dead ? " The answer probably was : " They get wings
and become angels." According to this explanation all the
brothers and sisters and cousins in the dream now have wings
like angels and — this is the important thing — they fly away.
Our little angel-maker remains alone, think of it, the only
one after such a multitude ! The feature that the children
are romping about on a meadow points with little ambiguity
to butterflies, as though the child had been led by the same
association which induced the ancients to conceive Psyche
as having the wings of a butterfly.

Perhaps some one will now object that, although the inimical
impulses of children towards their brothers and sisters may
well enough be admitted, how does the childish disposition
arrive at such a height of wickedness as to wish death to a
competitor or stronger playmate, as though all transgressions
could be atoned for only by the death-punishment ? Whoever
talks in this manner forgets that the childish idea of " being
dead " has little else but the words in common with our own.
The child knows nothing of the horrors of decay, of shivering
in the cold grave, of the terror of the infinite Nothing, which
the grown-up person, as all the myths concerning the Great
Beyond testify, finds it so hard to bear in his conception. Fear
of death is strange to the child ; therefore it plays with the
horrible word and threatens another child : "If you do that
again you will die, as Francis died," whereat the poor mother
shudders, for perhaps she cannot forget that the great majority
of mortals do not succeed in living beyond the years of child-
hood. It is still possible, even for a child eight years old, on
returning from a museum of natural history, to say to its
mother : " Mamma, I love you so ; if you ever die, I am going
to have you stuffed and set you up here in the room so I can
always, always see you ! " So little does the childish conception
of being dead resemble our own.*

* I heard the following idea expressed by a gifted boy of ten, after the
sudden death of his father : " I understand that father is dead, but I cannot
see why he does not come home for supper."

216 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Being dead means for the child, which has been spared
the scenes of suffering previous to dying, the same as " being
gone," not disturbing the survivors any more. The child
does not distinguish the manner and means by which this
absence is brought about, whether by travelling, estrangement,
or death. If, during the prehistoric years of a child, a nurse
has been sent away and its mother has died a short while
after, the two experiences, as is revealed by analysis, overlap
in his memory. The fact that the child does not miss very
intensely those who are absent has been realised by many a
mother to her sorrow, after she has returned home after a
summer journey of several weeks, and has been told upon
inquiry : " The children have not asked for their mother a
single time." But if she really goes to that " undiscovered
country from whose bourn no traveller returns," the children
seem at first to have forgotten her, and begin only subsequently
to remember the dead mother.

If, then, the child has motives for wishing the absence of
another child, every restraint is lacking which would prevent
it from clothing this wish in the form that the child may die,
and the psychic reaction to the dream of wishing death proves
that, in spite of all the differences in content, the wish in the
case of the child is somehow or other the same as it is with
adults.

If now the death-wish of the child towards its brothers and
sisters has been explained by the childish egotism, which causes
the child to regard its brothers and sisters as competitors,
how may we account for the same wish towards parents, who
bestow love on the child and satisfy its wants, and whose pre-
servation it ought to desire from these very egotistical motives ?

In the solution of this difficulty we are aided by the experi-
ence that dreams of the death of parents predominantly refer
to that member of the parental couple which shares the sex
of the dreamer, so that the man mostly dreams of the death of
his father, the woman of the death of her mother. I cannot
claim that this happens regularly, but the predominating
occurrence of this dream in the manner indicated is so evident
that it must be explained through some factor that is uni-
versally operative. To express the matter boldly, it is as
though a sexual preference becomes active at an early period,

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 217

as though the boy regards his father as a rival in love, and as
though the girl takes the same attitude toward her mother —
a rival by getting rid of whom he or she cannot but profit.

Before rejecting this idea as monstrous, let the reader
consider the actual relations between parents and children.
What the requirements of culture and piety demand of this
relation must be distinguished from what daily observation
shows us to be the fact. More than one cause for hostile
feeling is concealed within the relations between parents and
children ; the conditions necessary for the actuation of wishes
which cannot exist in the presence of the censor are most
abundantly provided. Let us dwell at first upon the relation
between father and son. I believe that the sanctity which we
have ascribed to the injunction of the decalogue dulls our
perception of reality. Perhaps we hardly dare to notice that
the greater part of humanity neglects to obey the fifth
commandment. In the lowest as well as in the highest strata of
human society, piety towards parents is in the habit of receding
before other interests. The obscure reports which have come
to us in mythology and legend from the primeval ages of human
society give us an unpleasant idea of the power of the father
and the ruthlessness with which it was used. Kronos devours
his children, as the wild boar devours the brood of the sow ;
Zeus emasculates his father * and takes his place as a ruler.
The more despotically the father ruled in the ancient family,
the more must the son have taken the position of an enemy,
and the greater must have been his impatience, as designated
successor, to obtain the mastery himself after his father's
death. Even in our own middle-class family the father is
accustomed to aid the development of the germ of hatred which
naturally belongs to the paternal relation by refusing the son
the disposal of his own destiny, or the means necessary for
this. A physician often has occasion to notice that the son's
grief at the loss of his father cannot suppress his satisfaction
at the liberty which he has at last obtained. Every father
frantically holds on to whatever of the sadly antiquated potestas

* At least a certain number of mythological representations. According
to others, emasculation is only practised by Kronos on his father.

With regard to mythological significance of this motive, cf. Otto Hank's
"Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden," fifth number of Schriften zur
angew. Seelenkunde, 1909.

218 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

patris still remains in the society of to-day, and every poet
who, like Ibsen, puts the ancient strife between father and son
in the foreground of his fiction is sure of his effect. The causes
of conflict between mother and daughter arise when the daughter
grows up and finds a guardian in her mother, while she desires
sexual freedom, and when, on the other hand, the mother has
been warned by the budding beauty of her daughter that the
time has come for her to renounce sexual claims.

All these conditions are notorious and open to everyone's
inspection. But they do not serve to explain dreams of the
death of parents found in the case of persons to whom piety
towards their parents has long since come to be inviolable.
We are furthermore prepared by the preceding discussion to
find that the death-wish towards parents is to be explained by
reference to earliest childhood.

This conjecture is reaffirmed with a certainty that makes
doubt impossible in its application to psychoneurotics through
the analyses that have been undertaken with them. It is
here found that the sexual wishes of the child — in so far as
they deserve this designation in their embryonic state —
awaken at a very early period, and that the first inclinations of
the girl are directed towards the father, and the first childish
cravings of the boy towards the mother. The father thus
becomes an annoying competitor for the boy, as the mother
does for the girl, and we have already shown in the case of
brothers and sisters how little it takes for this feeling to lead
the child to the death-wish. Sexual selection, as a rule, early
becomes evident in the parents ; it is a natural tendency for
the father to indulge the little daughter, and for the mother
to take the part of the sons, while both work earnestly for the
education of the little ones when the magic of sex does not
prejudice their judgment. The child is very well aware of
any partiality, and resists that member of the parental couple
who discourages it. To find love in a grown-up person is for
the child not only the satisfaction of a particular craving, but
also/means that the child's will is to be yielded to in other
respects. Thus the child obeys its own sexual impulse, and
at the same time re-enforces the feeling which proceeds from
the parents, if it makes a selection among the parents that
corresponds to theirs.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 219

Most of the signs of these infantile inclinations are usually
overlooked ; some of them may be observed even after the
first years of childhood. An eight-year-old girl of my ac-
quaintance, when her mother is called from the table, takes
advantage of the opportunity to proclaim herself her suc-
cessor. " Now I shall be Mamma ; Charles, do you want some
more vegetables ? Have some, I beg you," &c. A particu-
larly gifted and vivacious girl, not yet four years old, with
whom this bit of child psychology is unusually transparent,
says outright : " Now mother can go away ; then father must
marry me and I shall be his wife." Nor does this wish by any
means exclude from child life the possibility that the child
may love his mother affectionately. If the little boy is allowed
to sleep at his mother's side whenever his father goes on a
journey, and if after his father's return he must go back to the
nursery to a person whom he likes far less, the wish may be
easily actuated that his father may always be absent, in order
that he may keep his place next to his dear, beautiful mamma ;
and the father's death is obviously a means for the attainment
of this wish ; for the child's experience has taught him that
" dead " folks, like grandpa, for example, are always absent ;
they never return.

Although observations upon little children lend them-
selves, without being forced, to the proposed interpretation,
they do not carry the full conviction which psychoanalyses
of adult neurotics obtrude upon the physician. The dreams
in question are here cited with introductions of such a nature
that their interpretation as wish-dreams becomes unavoidable.
One day I find a lady sad and weeping. She says : " I do not
want to see my relatives any more ; they must shudder at
me." Thereupon, almost without any transition, she tells
that she remembers a dream, whose significance, of course,
she does not know. She dreamed it four years before, and it
is as follows : A fox or a lynx is taking a walk on the roof ; then
something falls down, or she falls down, and after that her mother is
carried out of the house dead — whereat the dreamer cries bitterly.
No sooner had I informed her that this dream must signify a
wish from her childhood to see her mother dead, and that it is
because of this dream that she thinks that her relatives must
shudder at her, than she furnished some material for explaining

220 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the dream. " Lynx-eye " is an opprobrious epithet which a
street boy once bestowed on her when she was a very small
child ; when she was three years old a brick had fallen on her
mother's head so that she bled severely.

I once had opportunity to make a thorough study of a
young girl who underwent several psychic states. In the state
of frenzied excitement with which the illness started, the
patient showed a very strong aversion to her mother ; she
struck and scolded her as soon as she approached the bed,
while at the same time she remained loving and obedient to a
much older sister. Then there followed a clear but somewhat
apathetic state with very much disturbed sleep. It was in
this phase that I began to treat her and to analyse her dreams.
An enormous number of these dealt in a more or less abstruse
manner with the death of the mother ; now she was present
at the funeral of an old woman, now she saw her sisters sitting
at the table dressed in mourning ; the meaning of the dreams
could not be doubted. During the further progress of the
convalescence hysterical phobias appeared ; the most tortur-
ing of these was the idea that something happened to her
mother. She was always having to hurry home from wherever
she happened to be in order to convince herself that her mother
was still alive. Now this case, in view of my other experiences,
was very instructive ; it showed in polyglot translations, as it
were, the different ways in which the psychic apparatus reacts
to the same exciting idea. In the state of excitement which
I conceive as the overpowering of the second psychic instance,
the unconscious enmity towards the mother became potent
as a motor impulse ; then, after calmness set in, following the
suppression of the tumult, and after the domination of the
censor had been restored, this feeling of enmity had access
only to the province of dreams in order to realise the wish that
the mother might die ; and after the normal condition had
been still further strengthened, it created the excessive concern
for the mother as a hysterical counter-reaction and manifesta-
tion of defence. In the light of these considerations it is no
longer inexplicable why hysterical girls are so often extrava-
gantly attached to their mothers.

On another occasion I had opportunity to get a profound
insight into the unconscious psychic life of a young man for

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 221

whom a compulsion-neurosis made life almost unendurable,
so that he could not go on the street, because he was harassed
by the obsession that he would kill every one he met. He spent
his days in arranging evidence for an alibi in case he should be
charged with any murder that might have occurred in the
city. It is superfluous to remark that this man was as moral
as he was highly cultured. The analysis — which, moreover,
led to a cure — discovered murderous impulses toward the
young man's somewhat over-strict father as the basis of these
disagreeable ideas of compulsion — impulses which, to his great
surprise, had received conscious expression when he was seven
years old, but which, of course, had originated in much earlier
years of childhood. After the painful illness and death of
the father, the obsessive reproach transferred to strangers in
the form of the afore-mentioned phobia, appeared when the
young man was thirty-one years old. Anyone capable of
wishing to push his own father from a mountain-top into an
abyss is certainly not to be trusted to spare the lives of those
who are not so closely bound to him ; he does well to lock
himself into his room.

According to my experience, which is now large, parents
play a leading part in the infantile psychology of all later
neurotics, and falling in love with one member of the parental
couple and hatred of the other help to make up that fateful
sum of material furnished by the psychic impulses, which has
been formed during the infantile period, and which is of such
great importance for the symptoms appearing in the later
neurosis. But I do not think that psychoneurotics are here
sharply distinguished from normal human beings, in that
they are capable of creating something absolutely new and
peculiar to themselves. It is far more probable, as is shown
also by occasional observation upon normal children, that in
their loving or hostile wishes towards their parents psycho-
neurotics only show in exaggerated form feelings which are
present less distinctly and less intensely in the minds of most
children. Antiquity has furnished us with legendary material
to confirm this fact, and the deep and universal effectiveness of
these legends can only be explained by granting a similar
universal applicability to the above-mentioned assumption in
infantile psychology.

222 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

I refer to the legend of King Oedipus and the drama of the
same name by Sophocles. Oedipus, the son of Laius, king of
Thebes, and of Jocasta, is exposed while a suckling, because
an oracle has informed the father that his son, who is still
unborn, will be his murderer. He is rescued, and grows up as
the king's son at a foreign court, until, being uncertain about
his origin, he also consults the oracle, and is advised to avoid
his native place, for he is destined to become the murderer of
his father and the husband of his mother. On the road leading
away from his supposed home he meets King Laius and strikes
him dead in a sudden quarrel. Then he comes to the gates
of Thebes, where he solves the riddle of the Sphynx who is
barring the way, and he is elected king by the Thebans in
gratitude, and is presented with the hand of Jocasta. He
reigns in peace and honour for a long time, and begets two sons
and two daughters upon his unknown mother, until at last a
plague breaks out which causes the Thebans to consult the
oracle anew. Here Sophocles' tragedy begins. The mes-
sengers bring the advice that the plague will stop as soon as the
murderer of Laius is driven from the country. But where is
he hidden ?

" Where are they to be found % How shall we trace the
perpetrators of so old a crime where no conjecture leads to
discovery ? " *

The action of the play now consists merely in a revelation,
which is gradually completed and artfully delayed — resembling
the work of a psychoanalysis — of the fact that Oedipus
himself is the murderer of Laius, and the son of the dead man
and of Jocasta. Oedipus, profoundly shocked at the mon-
strosities which he has unknowingly committed, blinds himself
and leaves his native place. The oracle has been fulfilled.

The Oedipus Tyrannus is a so-called tragedy of fate ; its
tragic effect is said to be found in the opposition between the
powerful will of the gods and the vain resistance of the human
beings who are threatened with destruction ; resignation to
the will of God and confession of one's own helplessness is the
lesson which the deeply-moved spectator is to learn from the
tragedy. Consequently modern authors have tried to obtain
a similar tragic effect by embodying the same opposition in a
* Act. i. ac. 2. Translated by George Soniers Clark.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 223

story of their own invention. But spectators have sat unmoved
while a curse or an oracular sentence has been fulfilled on
blameless human beings in spite of all their struggles ; later
tragedies of fate have all remained without effect.

If the Oedipus Tyrannus is capable of moving modern men
no less than it moved the contemporary Greeks, the explana-
tion of this fact cannot lie merely in the assumption that the
effect of the Greek tragedy is based upon the opposition be-
tween fate and human will, but is to be sought in the peculiar
nature of the material by which the opposition is shown.
There must be a voice within us which is prepared to recognise
the compelling power of fate in Oedipus, while we justly con-
demn the situations occurring in Die Ahnfrau or in other
tragedies of later date as arbitrary inventions. And there must
be a factor corresponding to this inner voice in the story of
King Oedipus. His fate moves us only for the reason that it
might have been ours, for the oracle has put the same curse
upon us before our birth as upon him. Perhaps we are all
destined to direct our first sexual impulses towards our
mothers, and our first hatred and violent wishes towards our
fathers ; our dreams convince us of it. King Oedipus, who
has struck his father Laius dead and has married his mother
Jocasta, is nothing but the realised wish of our childhood.
But more fortunate than he, we have since succeeded, unless
we have become psychoneurotics, in withdrawing our sexual
impulses from our mothers and in forgetting our jealousy of
our fathers. We recoil from the person for whom this primitive
wish has been fulfilled with all the force of the repression which
these wishes have suffered within us. By his analysis, showing
us the guilt of Oedipus, the poet urges us to recognise our own
inner self, in which these impulses, even if suppressed, are still
present. The comparison with which the chorus leaves us —

"... Behold ! this Oedipus, who unravelled the famous
riddle and who was a man of eminent virtue ; a man who
trusted neither to popularity nor to the fortune of his citizens ;
see how great a storm of adversity hath at last overtaken
him " (Act v. sc. 4).

This warning applies to ourselves and to our pride, to us, who
have grown so wise and so powerful in our own estimation

224 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

since the years of our childhood. Like Oedipus, we live in
ignorance of the wishes that offend morality, wishes which
nature has forced upon us, and after the revelation of which we
want to avert every glance from the scenes of our childhood.

In the very text of Sophocles' tragedy there is an unmis-
takable reference to the fact that the Oedipus legend originates
in an extremely old dream material, which consists of the
painful disturbance of the relation towards one's parents by
means of the first impulses of sexuality. Jocasta comforts
Oedipus — who is not yet enlightened, but who has become
worried on account of the oracle — by mentioning to him
the dream which is dreamt by so many people, though she
attaches no significance to it —

" For it hath already been the lot of many men in dreams
to think themselves partners of their mother's bed. But he
passes most easily through life to whom these circumstances
are trifles " (Act iv. sc. 3).

The dream of having sexual intercourse with one's mother
occurred at that time, as it does to-day, to many people, who
tell it with indignation and astonishment. As may be under-
stood, it is the key to the tragedy and the complement to the
dream of the death of the father. The story of Oedipus is
the reaction of the imagination to these two typical dreams,
and just as the dream when occurring to an adult is experienced
with feelings of resistance, so the legend must contain terror
and self -chastisement. The appearance which it further
assumes is the result of an uncomprehending secondary elab-
oration which tries to make it serve theological purposes
(c/. the dream material of exhibitionism, p. 206). The at-
tempt to reconcile divine omnipotence with human responsi-
bility must, of course, fail with this material as with every
other.*

* Another of the great creations of tragic poetry, Shakespeare's Hamlet,
is founded on the same basis as the Oedipus. But the whole difference in
the psychic life of the two widely separated periods of civilisation — the age-
long progress of repression in the emotional life of humanity — is made
man i fest in the changed treatment of the identical material. In Oedipus
the basic wish-phantasy of the child is brought to light and realised as it is
in the dream ; in Hamlet it remains repressed, and we learn of its existence
— somewhat as in the case of a neurosis — only by the inhibition which
results from it. The fact that it is possible to remain in complete darkness

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 225

I must not leave the typical dream of the death of dear
relatives without somewhat further elucidating the subject

concerning the character of the hero, has curiously shown itself to be consistent
with the overpowering effect of the modern drama. The play is based upon
Hamlet's hesitation to accomplish the avenging task which has been assigned
to him ; the text does not avow the reasons or motives of this hesitation, nor
have the numerous attempts at interpretation succeeded in giving them.
According to the conception which is still current to-day, and which goes
back to Goethe, Hamlet represents the type of man whose prime energy
is paralysed by over-development of thought activity. (" Sicklied o'er with
the pale cast of thought.") According to others the poet has attempted to
portray a morbid, vacillating character who is subject to neurasthenia. The
plot of the story, however, teaches us that Hamlet is by no means intended
to appear as a person altogether incapable of action. Twice we see him
asserting himself actively, once in headlong passion, where he stabs the
eavesdropper behind the arras, and on another occasion where he sends the
two courtiers to the death which has been intended for himself — doing this
deliberately, even craftily, and with all the lack of compunction of a prince
of the Renaissance. What is it, then, that restrains him in the accomplish-
ment of the task which his father's ghost has set before him ? Here the
explanation offers itself that it is the peculiar nature of this task. Hamlet
can do everything but take vengeance upon the man who has put his father
out of the way, and has taken his father's place with his mother — upon the
man who shows him the realisation of his repressed childhood wishes. The
loathing which ought to drive him to revenge is thus replaced in him by
self-reproaches, by conscientious scruples, which represent to him that he
himself is no better than the murderer whom he is to punish. I have thus
translated into consciousness what had to remain unconscious in the mind
of the hero ; if some one wishes to call Hamlet a hysteric subject I cannot
but recognise it as an inference from my interpretation. The sexual dis-
inclination which Hamlet expresses in conversation with Ophelia, coincides
very well with this view — it is the same sexual disinclination which was to
take possession of the poet more and more during the next few years of his
life, until the climax of it is expressed in Timon of Athens. Of course it
can only be the poet's own psychology with which we are confronted in
Hamlet j from a work on Shakespeare by George Brandes (1896), I take
the fact that the drama was composed immediately after the death of
Shakespeare's father — that is to say, in the midst of recent mourning for
him — during the revival, we may assume, of his childhood emotion towards
his father. It is also known that a son of Shakespeare's, who died early,
bore the name of Hamnet (identical with Hamlet). Just as Hamlet treats
of the relation of the son to his parents, Macbeth, which appears subse-
quently, is based upon the theme of childlessness. Just as every neurotic
symptom, just as the dream itself, is capable of re-interpretation, and even
requires it in order to be perfectly intelligible, so every genuine poetical
creation must have proceeded from more than one motive, more than one
impulse in the mind of the poet, and must admit of more than one inter-
pretation. I have here attempted to interpret only the most profound group
of impulses in the mind of the creative poet. The conception of the Hamlet
problem contained in these remarks has been later confirmed in a detailed
work based on many new arguments by Dr. Ernest Jones, of Toronto
(Canada). The connection of the Hamlet material with the " Mythus von
der Geburt des Helden " has also been demonstrated by O. Rank. — " The
Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery : a Study in Motive "
{American Journal of Psychology, January 1910, vol. xxi.).

P

226 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of their significance for the theory of the dream in general.
These dreams show us a realisation of the very unusual case
where the dream thought, which has been created by the
repressed wish, completely escapes the censor, and is transferred
to the dream without alteration. There must be present
peculiar conditions making possible such an outcome. I find
circumstances favourable to these dreams in the two following
factors : First, there is no wish which we believe further from
us ; we believe such a wish " would never occur to us in a
dream " ; the dream censor is therefore not prepared for this
monstrosity, just as the legislation of Solon was incapable of
establishing a punishment for patricide. Secondly, the re-
pressed and unsuspected wish is in just this case particularly
often met by a fragment of the day's experience in the shape
of a concern about the life of the beloved person. This con-
cern cannot be registered in the dream by any other means
than by taking advantage of the wish that has the same
content ; but it is possible for the wish to mask itself behind
the concern which has been awakened during the day. If one
is inclined to think all this a more simple process, and that
one merely continues during the night and in dreams what
one has been concerned with during the day, the dream of the
death of beloved persons is removed from all connection with
dream explanation, and an easily reducible problem is uselessly
retained.

It is also instructive to trace the relation of these dreams to
anxiety dreams. In the dream of the death of dear persons
the repressed wish has found a way of avoiding the censor,
and the distortion which it causes. In this case the inevitable
concomitant manifestation is that disagreeable sensations are
felt in the dream. Thus the dream of fear is brought about
only when the censor is entirely or partially overpowered,
and, on the other hand, the overpowering of the censor is made
easier when fear has already been furnished by somatic sources.
Thus it becomes obvious for what purpose the censor performs
its office and practises dream distortion ; it does this in order
to prevent the development of fear or other forms of disagreeable
emotion.

I have spoken above of the egotism of the infantile mind,
and I may now resume this subject in order to suggest that

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 227

dreams preserve this characteristic — thus showing their con-
nection with infantile life. Every dream is absolutely egotis-
tical ; in every dream the beloved ego appears, even though it
may be in a disguised form. The wishes that are realised in
dreams are regularly the wishes of this ego ; it is only a de-
ceptive appearance if interest in another person is thought to
have caused the dream. I shall subject to analysis several
examples which appear to contradict this assertion.

I. A boy not yet four years old relates the following : He
saw a large dish garnished, and upon it a large piece of roast meat,
and the meat was all of a sudden — not cut to pieces — but eaten up.
He did not see the person who ate it*

Who may this strange person be of whose luxurious repast
this little fellow dreams ? The experiences of the day must
give us the explanation of this. For a few days the boy had
been living on a diet of milk according to the doctor's pre-
scription ; but on the evening of the day before the dream he
had been naughty, and as a punishment he had been deprived of
his evening meal. He had already undergone one such hunger-
cure, and had acted very bravely. He knew that he would get
nothing to eat, but he did not dare to indicate by a word that
he was hungry. Education was beginning to have its influence
upon him ; this is expressed even in the dream which shows
the beginnings of dream disfigurement. There is no doubt
that he himself is the person whose wishes are directed toward
this abundant meal, and a meal of roast meat at that. But
since he knows that this is forbidden him, he does not dare, as
children do in the dream (cf. the dream about strawberries of
my little Anna, p. 110), to sit down to the meal himself. The
person remains anonymous.

II. Once I dream that I see on the show-table of a book
store a new number in the Book-lovers' Collection — the collec-
tion which I am in the habit of buying (art monographs, mono-
graphs on the history of the world, famous art centres, &c).

* Likewise, anything large, over-abundant, enormous, and exaggerated,
may be a childish characteristic. The child knows no more intense wish
than to become big, and to receive as much of everything as grown-ups ; the
child is hard to satisfy ; it knows no enough, and insatiably demands the
repetition of whatever has pleased it or tasted good to it. It learns to
practise moderation, to be modest and resigned, only through culture and
education. As is well known, the neurotic is also inclined toward im-
moderation and excess.

228 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

The new collection is called Famous Orators {or Orations), and
the first number hears the name of Doctor Lecher.

In the course of analysis it appears improbable that the
fame of Dr. Lecher, the long-winded orator of the German
Opposition, should occupy my thoughts while I am dreaming.
The fact is that, a few days before, I undertook the psychic
cure of some new patients, and was now forced to talk for
from ten to twelve hours a day. Thus I myself am the long-
winded orator.

III. Upon another occasion I dream that a teacher of my
acquaintance at the university says : My son, the Myopic.
Then there follows a dialogue consisting of short speeches and
replies. A third portion of the dream follows in which I and
my sons appear, and as far as the latent dream content is
concerned, father, son, and Professor M. are alike only lay
figures to represent me and my eldest son. I shall consider
this dream again further on because of another peculiarity.

IV. The following dream gives an example of really base
egotistical feelings, which are concealed behind affectionate
concern :

My friend Otto looks ill, his face is brown and his eyes bulge.

Otto is my family physician, to whom I owe a debt greater
than I can ever hope to repay, since he has guarded the health
of my children for years. He has treated them successfully
when they were taken sick, and besides that he has given them
presents on all occasions which gave him any excuse for doing
so. He came for a visit on the day of the dream, and my
wife noticed that he looked tired and exhausted. Then comes
my dream at night, and attributes to him a few of the symptoms
of Basedow's disease. Any one disregarding my rules for
dream interpretation would understand this dream to mean
that I am concerned about the health of my friend, and that
this concern is realised in the dream. It would thus be a
contradiction not only of the assertion that the dream is a
wish-fulfilment, but also of the assertion that it is accessible
only to egotistic impulses. But let the person who interprets
the dream in this manner explain to me why I fear that Otto
has . Basedow's disease, for which diagnosis his appearance
does not give the slightest justification ? As opposed to this,
my analysis furnishes the following material, taken from an

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 229

occurrence which happened six years ago. A small party of
us, including Professor R., were driving in profound darkness
through the forest of N., which is several hours distant from
our country home. The coachman, who was not quite sober,
threw us and the wagon down a bank, and it was only by a
lucky accident that we all escaped unhurt. But we were
forced to spend the night at the nearest inn, where the news of
our accident awakened great sympathy. A gentleman, who
showed unmistakable signs of the morbus Basedowii — nothing
but a brownish colour of the skin of the face and bulging eyes,
no goitre — placed himself entirely at our disposal and asked
what he could do for us. Professor R. answered in his decided
way : " Nothing but lend me a night-shirt." Whereupon our
generous friend replied : "I am sorry but I cannot do that,"
and went away.

In continuing the analysis, it occurs to me that Basedow
is the name not only of a physician, but also of a famous
educator. (Now that I am awake I do not feel quite sure of
this fact.) My friend Otto is the person whom I have asked
to take charge of the physical education of my children —
especially during the age of puberty (hence the night-shirt) —
in case anything should happen to me. By seeing Otto in
the dream with the morbid symptoms of our above-mentioned
generous benefactor, I apparently mean to say, " If anything
happens to me, just as little is to be expected for my children
from him as was to be expected then from Baron L., in spite of
his well-meaning offers." The egotistical turn of this dream
ought now to be clear.*

But where is the wish-fulfilment to be found ? It is not
in the vengeance secured upon my friend Otto, whose fate it
seems to be to receive ill-treatment in my dreams, but in the
following circumstances : In representing Otto in the dream
as Baron L., I have at the same time identified myself with
some one else, that is to say, with Professor R., for I have asked
something of Otto, just as R. asked something of Baron L.

* While Dr. Jones was delivering a lecture before an American scientific
society, and speaking of egotism in dreams, a learned lady took exception
to this unscientific generalisation. She thought that the lecturer could only
pronounce such judgment on the dreams of Austrians, and had no right to
include the dreams of Americans. As for herself she was sure that all her
dreams were strictly altruistic.

230 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

at the time of the occurrence which has been mentioned. And
that is the point. For Professor R. has pursued his way
independently outside the schools, somewhat as I have done,
and has only in later years received the title which he earned
long ago. I am therefore again wishing to be a professor !
The very phrase " in later years " is the fulfilment of wish,
for it signifies that I shall five long enough to pilot my boy
through the age of puberty myself.

I gave only a brief account of the other forms of typical
dreams in the first edition of this book, because an insufficient
amount of good material was at my disposal. My experience,
which has since been increased, now makes it possible for me
to divide these dreams into two broad classes — first, those
which really have the same meaning every time, and secondly,
those which must be subjected to the most widely different
interpretations in spite of their identical or similar content.
Among the typical dreams of the first sort I shall closely
consider the examination dream and the so-called dream of
dental irritation.

Every one who has received his degree after having passed
the final college examination, complains of the ruthlessness
with which he is pursued by the anxiety dream that he will
fail, that he must repeat his work, &c. For the holder of the
university degree this typical dream is replaced by another,
which represents to him that he has to pass the examination
for the doctor's degree, and against which he vainly raises the
objection in his sleep that he has already been practising for
years — that he is already a university instructor or the head
of a law firm. These are the ineradicable memories of the
punishments which we suffered when we were children for
misdeeds which we had committed — memories which were
revived in us on that dies irae, dies ilia of the severe exami-
nation at the two critical junctures in our studies. The
" examination-phobia " of neurotics is also strengthened by
this childish fear. After we have ceased to be schoolboys it
is no longer our parents and guardians as at first, or our
teachers as later on, who see to our punishment ; the inexorable
chain of causes and effects in life has taken over our further
education. Now we dream of examinations for graduation

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 231

or for the doctor's degree — and who has not been faint-hearted
in these tests, even though he belonged to the righteous ? —
whenever we fear that an outcome will punish us because we
have not done something, or because we have not accomplished
something as we should — in short whenever we feel the weight
of responsibility.

I owe the actual explanation of examination dreams to a
remark made by a well-informed colleague, who once asserted
in a scientific discussion that in his experience the examination
dream occurs only to persons who have passed the examina-
tion, never to those who have gone to pieces on it. The
anxiety dream of the examination, which occurs, as is being
more and more corroborated, when the dreamer is looking
forward to a responsible action on his part the next day and
the possibility of disgrace, has therefore probably selected
an occasion in the past where the great anxiety has shown
itself to have been without justification and has been contra-
dicted by the result. This would be a very striking example
of a misconception of the dream content on the part of the
waking instance. The objection to the dream, which is con-
ceived as the indignant protest, " But I am already a
doctor," &c, would be in reality a consolation which the
dreams offer, and which would therefore be to the following
effect : " Do not be afraid of the morrow ; think of the fear
which you had before the final examination, and yet nothing
came of it. You are a doctor this minute," &c. The fear,
however, which we attribute to the dream, originates in the
remnants of daily experience.

The tests of this explanation which I was able to make in
my own case and in that of others, although they were not
sufficiently numerous, have been altogether successful. I
failed, for example, in the examination for the doctor's degree
in legal medicine ; never once have I been concerned about
this matter in my dreams, while I have often enough been
examined in botany, zoology, or chemistry, in which subjects
I took the examinations with well-founded anxiety, but
escaped punishment through the clemency of fortune or of
the examiner. In my dreams of college examination, I am
regularly examined in history, a subject which I passed
brilliantly at the time, but only, I must admit, because my

232 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

good-natured professor — my one-eyed benefactor in another
dream (c/. p. 12) — did not overlook the fact that on the list
of questions I had crossed out the second of three questions
as an indication that he should not insist on it. One of my
patients, who withdrew before the final college examinations
and made them up later, but who failed in the officer's exami-
nation and did not become an officer, tells me that he dreams
about the former examination often enough, but never about
the latter.

The above-mentioned colleague (Dr. Stekel of Vienna)
calls attention to the double meaning of the word " Matura "
(Matura — examination for college degree : mature, ripe), and
claims that he has observed that examination dreams occur
very frequently when a sexual test is set for the following day,
in which, therefore, the disgrace which is feared might consist
in the manifestation of slight potency. A German colleague
takes exception to this, as it appears, justly, on the ground
that this examination is denominated in Germany the Abiturium
and hence lacks this double meaning.

On account of their similar affective impression dreams of
missing a train deserve to be placed next to examination
dreams. Their explanation also justifies this relationship.
They are consolation dreams directed against another feeling
of fear perceived in the dream, the fear of dying. " To
depart " is one of the most frequent and one of the most easily
reached symbols of death. The dream thus says consolingly :
" Compose yourself, you are not going to die (to depart)," just
as the examination dream calms us by saying " Fear not,
nothing will happen to you even this time." The difficulty
in understanding both kinds of dreams is due to the fact that
the feeling of anxiety is directly connected with the expression
of consolation. Stekel treats fully the symbolisms of death
in his recently published book Die Sprache des Traumes.

The meaning of the " dreams of dental irritation," which
I have had to analyse often enough with my patients,
escaped me for a long time, because, much to my astonishment,
resistances that were altogether too great obstructed their
interpretation.

At last overwhelming evidence convinced me that, in the
case of men, nothing else than cravings for masturbation from

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 233

the time of puberty furnishes the motive power for these
dreams. I shall analyse two such dreams, one of which is
likewise " a dream of flight." The two dreams are of the
same person — a young man with a strong homosexuality,
which, however, has been repressed in life.

He is witnessing a performance of Fidelio from the parquette
of the opera house ; he is sitting next to L., whose personality is
congenial to him, and whose friendship he would like to have.
He suddenly flies diagonally clear across the parquette ; he
then puts his hand in his mouth and draws out two of his
teeth.

He himself describes the flight by saying it was as if he
were " thrown " into the air. As it was a performance of
Fidelio he recalls the poet's words :

" He who a charming wife acquired "

But even the acquisition of a charming wife is not among the
wishes of the dreamer. Two other verses would be more
appropriate :

" He who succeeds in the lucky (big) throw,
A friend of a friend to be ... "

The dream thus contains the " lucky (big) throw," which
is not, however, a wish-fulfilment only. It also conceals the
painful reflection that in his striving after friendship he has
often had the misfortune to be " thrown down," and the fear
lest this fate may be repeated in the case of the young
man next whom he has enjoyed the performance of Fidelio.
This is now followed by a confession which quite puts this
refined dreamer to shame, to the effect that once, after such
a rejection on the part of a friend, out of burning desire he
merged into sexual excitement and masturbated twice in
succession.

The other dream is as follows : Two professors of the uni-
versity who are known to him are treating him in my stead. One
of them does something with his penis ; he fears an operation.
The other one thrusts an iron bar at his mouth so that he loses
two teeth. He is bound with four silken cloths.

The sexual significance of this dream can hardly be doubted.
The silken cloths are equivalent to an identification with a

234 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

homosexual of his acquaintance. The dreamer, who has never
achieved coition, but who has never actually sought sexual
intercourse with men, conceives sexual intercourse after the
model of the masturbation' which he was once taught during
the time of puberty.

I believe that the frequent modifications of the typical
dream of dental irritation — that, for example, of another
person drawing the tooth from the dreamer's mouth, are made
intelligible by means of the same explanation. It may,
however, be difficult to see how " dental irritation " can come
to have this significance. I may then call attention to a
transference from below to above which occurs very frequently.
This transference is at the service of sexual repression, and
by means of it all kinds of sensations and intentions occurring
in hysteria which ought to be enacted in the genitals can be
realised upon less objectionable parts of the body. It is also
a case of such transference when the genitals are replaced by
the face in the symbolism of unconscious thought. This is
assisted by the fact that the buttocks resemble the cheeks, and
also by the usage of language which calls the nymphse " lips,"
as resembling those that enclose the opening of the mouth.
The nose is compared to the penis in numerous allusions, and
in one place as in the other the presence of hair completes the
resemblance. Only one part of the anatomy — the teeth —
are beyond all possibility of being compared with anything,
and it is just this coincidence of agreement and disagreement
which makes the teeth suitable for representation under
pressure of sexual repression.

I do not wish to claim that the interpretation of the dream
of dental irritation as a dream of masturbation, the justifica-
tion of which I cannot doubt, has been freed of all obscurity.*
I carry the explanation as far as I am able, and must leave the
rest unsolved. But I must also refer to another connection
revealed by an idiomatic expression. In our country there is
in use an indelicate designation for the act of masturbation,
namely : To pull one out, or to pull one down.f I am unable
to say whence these colloquialisms originate, and on what

* According to C. tt. Jung, dreams of dental irritation in the case of
women have the significance of parturition dreams.
t Of. the " biographic " dream on p. 235.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 235

symbolisms they are based, but the teeth would well fit in
with the first of the two.*

Dreams in which one is flying or hovering, falling, swimming,
or the like, belong to the second group of typical dreams. What
do these dreams signify ? A general statement on this point
cannot be made. They signify something different in each case,

* As the dreams of pulling teeth, and teeth falling out, are interpreted
in popular belief to mean the death of a close friend, and as psychoanalysis
can at most only admit of such a meaning in the above indicated parodical
sense, I insert here a dream of dental irritation placed at my disposal by
Otto Rank 109.

" Upon the subject of dreams of dental irritation I have received the
following report from a colleague who has for some time taken a lively
interest in the problems of dream interpretation :

I recently dreamed that I went to the dentist who drilled out one of my bach
teeth in the lower jaw. He worked so long at it that the tooth became useless. He
then grasped it with the forceps, and pulled it out with such perfect ease that it
astonished me. He said that I should not care about it, as this ivas not really the
tooth that had been treated ; and he 'put it on the table where the tooth (as it seems
to me now an upper incisor) fell apart into many strata. I arose from the
operating chair, stepped inquisitively nearer, and, full of interest, put a medical
question. While the doctor separated the individual pieces of the strikingly white
tooth and ground them up (pulverised them) with an instrument, he explained
to me that this had some connection with puberty, and that the teeth come out so
easily only before puberty ; the decisive moment for this in women is the birth of
a child. I then noticed (as I believe half awake) that this dream was accompanied
by a pollution which I cannot however definitely place at a particular point in
the dream; I am inclined to think that it began with the pulling out of the
tooth.

I then continued to dream something which I can no longer remember, which
ended with the fact tliat I had left my liat and coat somewhere (perhaps at the
dentist's), hoping that they would be brought after me, and dressed only in my
overcoat I hastened to catch a departing train. I succeeded at the last moment
in jumping upon the last car, where someone was already standing. I could not,
however, get inside the car, but was compelled to make the journey in an un-
comfortable position, from which I attempted to escape with final success. We
journeyed through a long tunnel, in which two trains from the opposite direction
passed through our own train as if it were a tunnel. I looked in as from the
outside through a car window.

As material for the interpretation of this dream, we obtained the follow-
ing experiences and thoughts of the dreamer : —

I. For a short time I had actually been under dental treatment, and at
the time of the dream I was suffering from continual pains in the tooth of
my lower jaw, which was drilled out in the dream, and on which the dentist
had in fact worked longer than I liked. On the forenoon of the day of the
dream I had again gone to the doctor's on account of the pain, and he had
suggested that I should allow him to pull out another tooth than the one
treated in the same jaw, from which the pain probably came. It was a
' wisdom tooth ' which was just breaking through. On this occasion, and
in this connection, I had put a question to his conscience as a physician.

II. On the afternoon of the same day I was obliged to excuse myself to
a lady for my irritable disposition on account of the toothache, upon which

236 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

as we shall hear : only the sensational material which they
contain always comes from the same source.

It is necessary to conclude, from the material obtained in
psychoanalysis, that these dreams repeat impressions from
childhood — that is, that they refer to the movement games
which have such extraordinary attractions for the child. What

she told me that she was afraid to have one of her roots pulled, though the
crown was almost completely gone. She thought that the pulling out of
eye teeth was especially painful and dangerous, although some acquaintance
had told her that this was much easier when it was a tooth of the lower
jaw. It was such a tooth in her case. The same acquaintance also told her
that while under an anaesthetic one of her false teeth had been pulled — a
statement which increased her fear of the necessary operation. She then
asked me whether by eye teeth one was to understand molars or canines,
and what was known about them. I then called her attention to the vein
of superstitions in all these meanings, without however, emphasising the
real significance of some of the popular views. She knew from her own
experience, a very old and general popular belief, according to which if a
pregnant woman has toothache she will give birth to a boy.

III. This saying interested me in its relation to the typical significance
of dreams of dental irritation as a substitute for onanism as maintained by
Freud in his Traumdeutung (2nd edition, p. 193), for the teeth and the male
genital (Bub-boy) are brought in certain relations even in the popular
saying. On the evening of the same day I therefore read the passage in
question in the Traumdeutung, and found there among other things the
statements which will be quoted in a moment, the influence of which on my
dream is as plainly recognisable as the influence of the two above-mentioned
experiences. Freud writes concerning dreams of dental irritation that 'in
the case of men nothing else than cravings for masturbation from the time
of puberty furnishes the motive power for these dreams,' p. 193. Further,
' I am of the opinion that the frequent modifications of the typical dream
of dental irritation — that e.g. of another person drawing the tooth from the
dreamer's mouth — are made intelligible by means of the same explanation.
It may seem problematic, however, how " dental irritation " can arrive at this
significance. I here call attention to the transference from below to above
(in the dream in question from the lower to the upper jaw), which occurs
so frequently, which is at the service of sexual repression, and by means of
which all kinds of sensations and intentions occurring in hysteria which
ought to be enacted in the genitals can be realised upon less objectionable
parts of the body,' p. 194. ' But I must also refer to another connection
contained in an idiomatic expression. In our country there is in use an
indelicate designation for the act of masturbation, namely : To pull one out,
or to pull one down,' p. 195, 2nd edition. This expression had been familiar
to me in early youth as a designation for onanism, and from here on it will
not be difficult for the experienced dream interpreter to get access to the
infantile material which may lie at the basis of this dream. I only wish
to add that the facility with which the tooth in the dream came out, and
the fact that it became transformed after coming out into an upper incisor,
recalls to me an experience of childhood when I myself easily and painlessly
pulled out one of my wobbling front teeth. This episode, which I can still
to this day distinctly remember with all its details, happened at the same
early period in which my first conscious attempts at onanism began —
(Concealing Memory).

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 237

uncle has never made a child fly by running across the room
with it with arms outstretched, or has never played falling
with it by rocking it on his knee and then suddenly stretching
out his leg, or by lifting it up high and then pretending to
withdraw support. At this the children shout with joy, and
demand more untiringly, especially if there is a little fright

The reference of Freud to an assertion of C. G. Jung that dreams of
dental irritation in women signify parturition (footnote p. 194), together
with the popular belief in the significance of toothache in pregnant women,
has established an opposition between the feminine significance and the
masculine (puberty). In this connection I recall an earlier dream which I
dreamed soon after I was discharged by the dentist after the treatment, that
the gold crowns which had just been put in fell out, whereupon I was greatly
chagrined in the dream on account of the considerable expense, concerning
which I had not yet stopped worrying. In view of a certain experience this
dream now becomes comprehensible as a commendation of the material
advantages of masturbation when contrasted with every form of the economi-
cally less advantageous object-love (gold crowns are also Austrian gold
coins).

Theoretically this case seems to show a double interest. First it verifies
the connection revealed by Freud, inasmuch as the ejaculation in the dream
takes place during the act of tooth-pulling. For no matter in what form
a pollution may appear, we are obliged to look upon it as a masturbatic
gratification which takes place without the help of mechanical excitation.
Moreover the gratification by pollution in this case does not take place, as is
usually the case, through an imaginary object, but it is without an object ;
and, if one may be allowed to say so, it is purely autoerotic, or at most it
perhaps shows a slight homosexual thread (the dentist).

The second point which seems to be worth mentioning is the following :
The objection is quite obvious that we are seeking here to validate the
Freudian conception in a quite superfluous manner, for the experiences of
the reading itself are perfectly sufficient to explain to us the content of the
dream. The visit to the dentist, the conversation with the lady, and the
reading of the Traumdeutung are sufficient to explain why the sleeper, who
was also disturbed during the night by toothache, should dream this dream,
it may even explain the removal of the sleep-disturbing pain (by means of
the presentation of the removal of the painful tooth and simultaneous over-
accentuation of the dreaded painful sensation through libido). But no
matter how much of this assumption we may admit, we cannot earnestly
maintain that the readings of Freud's explanations have produced in the
dreamer the connection of the tooth-pulling with the act of masturbation ;
it could not even have been made effective had it not been for the fact,
as the dreamer himself admitted ('to pull one off') that this association
had already been formed long ago. What may have still more stimulated
this association in connection with the conversation with the lady is shown
by a later assertion of the dreamer that while reading the Traumdeutung he
could not, for obvious reasons, believe in this typical meaning of dreams of
dental irritation, and entertained the wish to know whether it held true for
all dreams of this nature. The dream now confirms this at least for his own
person, and shows him why he had to doubt it. The dream is therefore also
in this respect the fulfilment of a wish ; namely, to be convinced of the
importance and stability of this conception of Freud."

238 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

and dizziness attached to it ; in after years they create a
repetition of this in the dream, but in the dream they omit
the hands which have held them, so that they now freely float
and fall. The fondness of all small children for games like
rocking and see-sawing is well known ; and if they see gym-
nastic tricks at the circus their recollection of this rocking is
refreshed. With some boys the hysterical attack consists
simply in the reproduction of such tricks, which they accom-
plish with great skill. Not infrequently sexual sensations are
excited by these movement games, harmless as they are in
themselves.* To express the idea by a word which is current
among us, and which covers all of these matters : It is the wild
playing (" Hetzen ") of childhood which dreams about flying,
falling, vertigo, and the like repeat, and the voluptuous feelings
of which have now been turned into fear. But as every
mother knows, the wild playing of children has often enough
culminated in quarrelling and tears.

I therefore have good reason for rejecting the explanation
that the condition of our dermal sensations during sleep, the
sensations caused by the movements of the lungs, and the
like, give rise to dreams of flying and falling. I see that these
very sensations have been reproduced from the memory with
which the dream is concerned — that they are, therefore, a part
of the dream content and not of the dream sources.

This material, similar in its character and origin consisting
of sensations of motion, is now used for the representation of
the most manifold dream thoughts. Dreams of flying, for
the most part characterised by delight, require the most widely
different interpretations — altogether special interpretations in
the case of some persons, and even interpretations of a typical
nature in that of others. One of my patients was in the habit
of dreaming very often that she was suspended above the

* A young colleague, who is entirely free from nervousness, tells me in
this connection : " I know from my own experience that while swinging,
and at the moment at which the downward movement had the greatest
impetus, I used to get a curious feeling in my genitals, which I must desig-
nate, although it was not really pleasant to me, as a voluptuous feeling."
I have often heard from patients that their first erections accompanied by
voluptuous sensations had occurred in boyhood while they were climbing.
It is established with complete certainty by psychoanalyses that the first
sexual impulses have often originated in the scufflings and wrestlings of
childhood.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 239

street at a certain height, without touching the ground. She
had grown only to a very small stature, and shunned every
kind of contamination which accompanies intercourse with
human beings. Her dream of suspension fulfilled both of her
wishes, by raising her feet from the ground and by allowing her
head to tower in the upper regions. In the case of other
female dreamers the dream of flying had the significance of a
longing : If I were a little bird ; others thus become angels
at night because they have missed being called that by day.
The intimate connection between flying and the idea of a bird
makes it comprehensible that the dream of flying in the case
of men usually has a significance of coarse sensuality.* We
shall also not be surprised to hear that this or that dreamer is
always very proud of his ability to fly.

Dr. Paul Federn (Vienna) has propounded the fascinating
theory that a great many flying dreams are erection dreams,
since the remarkable phenomena of erection which so con-
stantly occupy the human phantasy must strongly impress
upon it a notion of the suspension of gravity (c/. the winged
phalli of the ancients).

Dreams of falling are most frequently characterised by
fear. Their interpretation, when they occur in women, is
subject to no difficulty because women always accept the
symbolic sense of falling, which is a circumlocution for the
indulgence of an erotic temptation. We have not yet ex-
hausted the infantile sources of the dream of falling ; nearly
all children have fallen occasionally, and then been picked up
and fondled ; if they fell out of bed at night, they were picked
up by their nurse and taken into her bed.

People who dream often of swimming, of cleaving the waves,
with great enjoyment, &c, have usually been persons who
wetted their beds, and they now repeat in the dream a pleasure
which they have long since learned to forgo. We shall soon
learn from one example or another to what representation the
dreams of swimming easily lend themselves.

The interpretation of dreams about fire justifies a pro-
hibition of the nursery which forbids children to burn matches
in order that they may not wet the bed at night. They too are

* This naturally holds true only for German-speaking dreamers who are
acquainted with the vulgarism " vögeln."

240 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

based on the reminiscence of enuresis noctumus of childhood.
In the Bruchstück einer Hysterieanälyse, 1905,* I have given
the complete analysis and synthesis of such a fire-dream in
connection with the infantile history of the dreamer, and have
shown to the representation of what emotions this infantile
material has been utilised in maturer years.

It would be possible to cite a considerable number of other
" typical " dreams, if these are understood to refer to the
frequent recurrence of the same manifest dream content in
the case of different dreamers, as, for example : dreams of
passing through narrow alleys, of walking through a whole
suite of rooms ; dreams of the nocturnal burglar against whom
nervous people direct precautionary measures before going to
sleep ; dreams of being chased by wild animals (bulls, horses),
or of being threatened with knives, daggers, and lances. The
last two are characteristic as the manifest dream content of
persons suffering from anxiety, &c. An investigation dealing
especially with this material would be well worth while. In
lieu of this I have two remarks to offer, which, however, do not
apply exclusively to typical dreams.

I. The more one is occupied with the solution of dreams,
the more willing one must become to acknowledge that the
majority of the dreams of adults treat of sexual material and
give expression to erotic wishes. Only one who really analyses
dreams, that is to say, who pushes forward from their manifest
content to the latent dream thoughts, can form an opinion on
this subject — never the person who is satisfied with registering
the manifest content (as, for example, Nacke in his works on
sexual dreams). Let us recognise at once that this fact is
not to be wondered at, but that it is in complete harmony with
the fundamental assumptions of dream explanation. No
other impulse has had to undergo so much suppression from
the time of childhood as the sex impulse in its numerous com-
ponents, t from no other impulse have survived so many and
such intense unconscious wishes, which now act in the sleeping
state in such a manner as to produce dreams. In dream
interpretation, this significance of sexual complexes must never

* Sammlung kl. Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, zweite Folge, 1909.
f Of. the author's Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory, translated by
A. A. Brill.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 241

be forgotten, nor must they, of course, be exaggerated to the
point of being considered exclusive.

Of many dreams it can be ascertained by a careful inter-
pretation that they are even to be taken bisexually, inasmuch as
they result in an irrefutable secondary interpretation in which
they realise homosexual feelings — that is, feelings that are
common to the normal sexual activity of the dreaming person.
But that all dreams are to be interpreted bisexually, as main-
tained by W. Stekel,* and Alf. Adler, f seems to me to be a
generalisation as indemonstrable as it is improbable, which I
should not like to support. Above all I should not know how
to dispose of the apparent fact that there are many dreams
satisfying other than — in the widest sense — erotic needs, as
dreams of hunger, thirst, convenience, &c. Likewise the
similar assertions " that behind every dream one finds the
death sentence " (Stekel), and that every dream shows " a
continuation from the feminine to the masculine line " (Adler),
seem to me to proceed far beyond what is admissible in the
interpretation of dreams.

We have already asserted elsewhere that dreams which
are conspicuously innocent invariably embody coarse erotic
wishes, and we might confirm this by means of numerous fresh
examples. But many dreams which appear indifferent, and
which would never be suspected of any particular significance,
can be traced back, after analysis, to unmistakably sexual
wish-feelings, which are often of an unexpected nature. For
example, who would suspect a sexual wish in the following
dream until the interpretation had been worked out ? The
dreamer relates : Between two stately palaces stands a little
house, receding somewhat, whose doors are closed. My wife
leads me a little way along the street up to the little house, and
pushes in the door, and then I slip quickly and easily into the
interior of a courtyard that slants obliquely upwards.

Anyone who has had experience in the translating of dreams
will, of course, immediately perceive that penetrating into
narrow spaces, and opening locked doors, belong to the

* W. Stekel, Die Sprache des Traumes, 1911.

t Alf. Adler, "Der Psychische Hermaphroditisrnus im Leben und in der
Nexirose," Fortschrifte der Medizin, 1910, No. 16, and later works in the
Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, 1, 1910-1911.

242 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

commonest sexual symbolism, and will easily find in this
dream a representation of attempted coition from behind
(between the two stately buttocks of the female body). The
narrow slanting passage is of course the vagina ; the assistance
attributed to the wife of the dreamer requires the interpretation
that in reality it is only consideration for the wife which is
responsible for the detention from such an attempt. Moreover,
inquiry shows that on the previous day a young girl had entered
the household of the dreamer who had pleased him, and who
had given him the impression that she would not be altogether
opposed to an approach of this sort. The little house between
the two palaces is taken from a reminiscence of the Hradschin
in Prague, and thus points again to the girl who is a native of
that city.

If with my patients I emphasise the frequency of the
Oedipus dream — of having sexual intercourse with one's
mother — I get the answer : "I cannot remember such a
dream." Immediately afterwards, however, there arises the
recollection of another disguised and indifferent dream, which
has been dreamed repeatedly by the patient, and the analysis
shows it to be a dream of this same content — that is, another
Oedipus dream. I can assure the reader that veiled dreams of
sexual intercourse with the mother are a great deal more
frequent than open ones to the same effect.*

There are dreams about landscapes and localities in which
emphasis is always laid upon the assurance : "I have been
there before." In this case the locality is always the genital
organ of the mother ; it can indeed be asserted with such

* I have published a typical example of such a veiled Oedipus dream in
No. 1 of the Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse ; another with a detailed analysis
was reported in the same journal, No. IV., by Otto Rank. Indeed the
ancients were not unfamiliar with tbe symbolic interpretation of the open
Oedipus dream (see 0. Rank,106 p. 534) ; thus a dream of sexual relations
with the motber has been transmitted to us by Julius Caesar which the
oneiroscopists interpreted as a favourable omen for taking possession of the
earth (Mother-earth). It is also known that the oracle declared to the
Tarquinii that that one of them would become ruler of Eome who should
first kiss the mother (osculum matri tulerit), which Brutus conceived as
referring to the mother-earth (terra/m osculo contigit, scilicet quod ea communia
mater omnium mortalium esset, Livius, I., lxi.). These myths and interpreta-
tions point to a correct psychological knowledge. I have found that persons
who consider themselves preferred or favoured by their mothers manifest
in life that confidence in themselves and that firm optimism which often
seems heroic and brings about real success by force.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 243

certainty of no other locality that one " has been there
before."

A large number of dreams, often full of fear, which are con-
cerned with passing through narrow spaces or with staying in
the water, are based upon fancies about the embryonic life,
about the sojourn in the mother's womb, and about the act
of birth. The following is the dream of a young man who in
his fancy has already while in embryo taken advantage of
his opportunity to spy upon an act of coition between his
parents.

" He is in a deep shaft, in which there is a window, as in the
Semmering Tunnel. At first he sees an empty landscape through
this window, and then he composes a picture into it, which is
immediately at hand and which fills out the empty space. The
picture represents a field which is being thoroughly harrowed by an
implement, and the delightful air, the accompanying idea of hard
work, and the bluish-black clods of earth make a pleasant im-
pression. He then goes on and sees a primary school opened . . .
and he is surprised that so much attention is devoted in it to the
sexual feelings of the child, which makes him think of me."

Here is a pretty water-dream of a female patient, which
was turned to extraordinary account in the course of treat-
ment.

At her summer resort at the . . . Lake, she hurls herself into
the dark water at a place where the pale moon is reflected in the
water.

Dreams of this sort are parturition dreams ; their inter-
pretation is accomplished by reversing the fact reported in
the manifest dream content ; thus, instead of " throwing one's
self into the water," read " coming out of the water," that is,
" being born." The place from which one is born is recognised
if one thinks of the bad sense of the French " la lune." The
pale moon thus becomes the white " bottom " (Popo), which
the child soon recognises as the place from which it came.
Now what can be the meaning of the patient's wishing to be
born at her summer resort ? I asked the dreamer this, and
she answered without hesitation : " Hasn't the treatment
made me as though I were born again ? " Thus the dream
becomes an invitation to continue the cure at this summer
resort, that is, to visit her there ; perhaps it also contains

244 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

a very bashful allusion to the wish to become a mother
herself.*

Another dream of parturition, with its interpretation, I
take from the work of E. Jones.95 " She stood at the seashore
watching a small boy, who seemed to be hers, wading into the
water. This he did till the water covered him, and she could only
see his head bobbing up and down near the surface. The scene
then changed to the crowded hall of a hotel. Her husband left
her, and she ' entered into conversation with ' a stranger." The
second half of the dream was discovered in the analysis to
represent a flight from her husband, and the entering into inti-
mate relations with a third person, behind whom was plainly
indicated Mr. X.'s brother mentioned in a former dream. The
first part of the dream was a fairly evident birth phantasy. In
dreams as in mythology, the delivery of a child from the uterine
waters is commonly presented by distortion as the entry of the
child into water ; among many others, the births of Adonis,
Osiris, Moses, and Bacchus are well-known illustrations of this.
The bobbing up and down of the head in the water at once
recalled to the patient the sensation of quickening she had
experienced in her only pregnancy. Thinking of the boy going
into the water induced a reverie in which she saw herself taking
him out of the water, carrying him into the nursery, washing
him and dressing him, and installing him in her household.

The second half of the dream, therefore, represents thoughts
concerning the elopement, which belonged to the first half of
the underlying latent content ; the first half of the dream cor-
responded with the second half of the latent content, the birth
phantasy. Besides this inversion in order, further inversions
took place in each half of the dream. In the first half the child
entered the water, and then his head bobbed ; in the underlying
dream thoughts first the quickening occurred, and then the child
left the water (a double inversion). In the second half her
husband left her ; in the dream thoughts she left her husband.

* It is only of late that I have learned to value the significance of fancies
and unconscious thoughts about life in the womb. They contain the ex-
planation of the curious fear felt by so many people of being buried alive,
as well as the profoundest unconscious reason for the belief in a life after
death which represents nothing but a projection into the future of this
mysterious life before birth. The act of birth, moreover, is the first experience
with fear, and is thus the source and model of the emotion of fear.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 245

Another parturition dream is related by Abraham 79 of a
young woman looking forward to her first confinement (p. 22) :
From a place in the floor of the house a subterranean canal leads
directly into the water (parturition path, amniotic liquor). She
lifts up a trap in the floor, and there immediately appears a
creature dressed in a brownish fur, which almost resembles
a seal. This creature changes into the younger brother of
the dreamer, to whom she has always stood in maternal
relationship.

Dreams of " saving " are connected with parturition dreams.
To save, especially to save from the water, is equivalent to
giving birth when dreamed by a woman ; this sense is, however,
modified when the dreamer is a man.*

Robbers, burglars at night, and ghosts, of which we are
afraid before going to bed, and which occasionally even disturb
our sleep, originate in one and the same childish reminiscence.
They are the nightly visitors who have awakened the child to
set it on the chamber so that it may not wet the bed, or have
lifted the clover in order to see clearly how the child is holding
its hands while sleeping. I have been able to induce an exact
recollection of the nocturnal visitor hi the analysis of some of
these anxiety dreams. The robbers were always the father,
the ghosts more probably corresponded to feminine persons
with white night-gowns.

II. When one has become familiar with the abundant use
of symbolism for the representation of sexual material in
dreams, one naturally raises the question whether there are
not many of these symbols which appear once and for all with
a firmly established significance like the signs in stenography ;
and one is tempted to compile a new dream-book according to
the cipher method. In this connection it may be remarked
that this symbolism does not belong peculiarly to the dream,
but rather to unconscious thinking, particularly that of the
masses, and it is to be found in greater perfection in the folk-
lore, in the myths, legends, and manners of speech, in the

* For such a dream see Pfister : " Ein Fall von Psychanalytischer Seelen-
sorge und Seelenheilung," Evangelische Freiheit, 1909. Concerning the symbol
of "saving" see my lecture, "Die Zukünftigen Chancen der psychoanaly-
tischen Therapie," Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, No I., 1910. Also "Beit-
räge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens, I. Ueber einen besonderen Typus der
objektwahl beim Manne," Jahrbuch, Bleuler-Freud, vol. ii., 1910.

246 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

proverbial sayings, and in the current witticisms of a nation
than in its dreams.*

The dream takes advantage of this symbolism in order to
give a disguised representation to its latent thoughts. Among
the symbols which are used in this manner there are of course
many which regularly, or almost regularly, mean the same thing.
Only it is necessary to keep in mind the curious plasticity of
psychic material. Now and then a symbol in the dream content
may have to be interpreted not symbolically, but according to
its real meaning ; at another time the dreamer, owing to a
peculiar set of recollections, may create for himself the right to
use anything whatever as a sexual symbol, though it is not
ordinarily used in that way. Nor are the most frequently
used sexual symbols unambiguous every time.

After these limitations and reservations I may call attention
to the following : Emperor and Empress (King and Queen) in
most cases really represent the parents of the dreamer ; f
the dreamer himself or herself is the prince or princess. All
elongated objects, sticks, tree-trunks, and umbrellas (on account
of the stretching-up which might be compared to an erection !
all elongated and sharp weapons, knives, daggers, and pikes,
are intended to represent the male member. A frequent, not
very intelligible, symbol for the same is a nail-file (on account
of the rubbing and scraping ?). Little cases, boxes, caskets,
closets, and stoves correspond to the female part. The sym-
bolism of lock and key has been very gracefully employed by
Unland in his song about the " Grafen Eberstein," to make a
common smutty joke. The dream of walking through a row
of rooms is a brothel or harem dream. Staircases, ladders, and
nights of stairs, or climbing on these, either upwards or down-
wards, are symbolic representations of the sexual act. J Smooth

* Cf. the works of Bleuler and of his pupils Maeder, Abraham, and
others of the Zurich school upon symbolism, and of those authors who are
not physicians (Kleinpaul and others), to which they refer.

T In this country the President, the Governor, and the Mayor often
represent the father in the dream. (Translator.)

X I may here repeat what I have said in another place ("Die Zukünf-
tigen Chancen der psychoanalytischen Therapie," Zentralblatt für Psycho-
analyse, I., No. 1 and 2, 1910) : " Some time ago I learned that a psychologist
who is unfamiliar with our work remarked to one of my friends that we are
surely over-estimating the secret sexual significance of dreams. He stated
that his most frequent dream was of climbing a stairway, and that there
was surely nothing sexual behind this. Our attention having been called

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 247

walls over which one is climbing, facades of houses upon
which one is letting oneself down, frequently under great
anxiety, correspond to the erect human body, and probably
repeat in the dream reminiscences of the upward climbing of
little children on their parents or foster parents. " Smooth "
walls are men. Often in a dream of anxiety one is holding on
firmly to some projection from a house. Tables, set tables,
and boards are women, perhaps on account of the opposition
which does away with the bodily contours. Since " bed and
board " (mensa et thorus) constitute marriage, the former are
often put for the latter in the dream, and as far as practicable
the sexual presentation complex is transposed to the eating
complex. Of articles of dress the woman's hat may frequently
be definitely interpreted as the male genital. In dreams of
men one often finds the cravat as a symbol for the penis ; this
indeed is not only because cravats hang down long, and are
characteristic of the man, but also because one can select them
at pleasure, a freedom which is prohibited by nature in the
original of the symbol. Persons who make use of this symbol
in the dream are very extravagant with cravats, and possess
regular collections of them.* All complicated machines and
apparatus in dream are very probably genitals, in the descrip-
tion of which dream symbolism shows itself to be as tireless as
the activity of wit. Likewise many landscapes in dreams,
especially with bridges or with wooded mountains, can be
readily recognised as descriptions of the genitals. Finally
where one finds incomprehensible neologisms one may think
of combinations made up of components having a sexual

to this objection, we directed our investigations to the occurrence of stair-
ways, stairs, and ladders in the dream, and we soon ascertained that stairs
(or anything analogous to them) represent a definite symbol of coitus. The
basis for this comparison is not difficult to find ; under rhythmic intervals
and with increasing difficulty in breathing one reaches to a height, and may
come down again in a few rapid jumps. Thus the rhythm of coitus is re-
cognisable in climbing stairs. Let us not forget to consider the usage of
language. It shows us that the "climbing" or "mounting" is, without
further addition, \ised as a substitutive designation of the sexual act. In
French the step of the stairway is called " la marche" ; " un vieux niarcheur"
corresponds exactly to our "an old climber."

* In this country where the word " necktie " is almost exclusively used,
the translator has also found it to be a symbol of a burdensome woman
from whom the dreamer longs to be freed — " necktie — something tied to my
neck like a heavy weight — my fiancee," are the associations from the dream
of a man who eventually broke his marriage engagement.

248 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

significance. Children also in the dream often signify the
genitals, as men and women are in the habit of fondly referring
to their genital organ as their " little one." As a very recent
symbol of the male genital may be mentioned the flying machine,
utilisation of which is justified by its relation to flying as well
as occasionally by its form. To play with a little child or to
beat a little one is often the dream's representation of onanism.
A number of other symbols, in part not sufficiently verified,
are given by Stekel,114 who illustrates them with examples.
Right and left, according to him, are to be conceived in the
dream in an ethical sense. " The right way always signifies
the road to righteousness, the left the one to crime. Thus the
left may signify homosexuality, incest, and perversion, while
the right signifies marriage, relations with a prostitute, &c.
The meaning is always determined by the individual moral
view-point of the dreamer " (I.e., p. 466). Relatives in the
dream generally play the role of genitals (p. 473). Not to be
able to catch up with a wagon is interpreted by Stekel as
regret not to be able to come up to a difference in age (p. 479).
Baggage with which one travels is the burden of sin by which
one is oppressed (ibid.). Also numbers, which frequently
occur in the dream, are assigned by Stekel a fixed symbolical
meaning, but these interpretations seem neither sufficiently
verified nor of general validity, although the interpretation in
individual cases can generally be recognised as probable. In
a recently published book by W. Stekel, Die Sprache des
Traumes, which I was unable to utilise, there is a list (p. 72)
of the most common sexual symbols, the object of which is to
prove that all sexual symbols can be bisexually used. He
states : "Is there a symbol which (if in any way permitted by
the phantasy) may not be used simultaneously in the masculine
and the feminine sense ! " To be sure the clause in parentheses
takes away much of the absoluteness of this assertion, for
this is not at all permitted by the phantasy. I do not, however,
think it superfluous to state that in my experience Stekel's
general statement has to give way to the recognition of a
greater manifoldness. Besides those symbols, which are just
as frequent for the male as for the female genitals, there are
others which preponderately, or almost exclusively, designate
one of the sexes, and there are still others of which only the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 249

male or only the female signification is known. To use long,
firm objects and weapons as symbols of the female genitals,
or hollow objects (chests, boxes, pouches, &c), as symbols of
the male genitals, is indeed not allowed by the fancy.

It is true that the tendency of the dream and the uncon-
scious fancy to utilise the sexual symbol bisexually betrays
an archaic trend, for in childhood a difference in the genitals
is unknown, and the same genitals are attributed to both
sexes.

These very incomplete suggestions may suffice to stimulate
others to make a more careful collection.*

I shall now add a few examples of the application of such
symbolisms in dreams, which will serve to show how im-
possible it becomes to interpret a dream without taking into
account the symbolism of dreams, and how imperatively it
obtrudes itself in many cases.

1. The hat as a symbol of the man (of the male genital) : f
(a fragment from the dream of a young woman who suffered
from agoraphobia on account of a fear of temptation).

" I am walking in the street in summer, I wear a straw hat
of peculiar shape, the middle piece of which is bent upwards
and the side pieces of which hang downwards (the description
became here obstructed), and in such a fashion that one is
lower than the other. I am cheerful and in a confidential
mood, and as I pass a troop of young officers I think to myself :
None of you can have any designs upon me."

As she could produce no associations to the hat, I said to
her : " The hat is really a male genital, with its raised middle
piece and the two downward hanging side pieces." I inten-
tionally refrained from interpreting those details concerning
the unequal downward hanging of the two side pieces, although
just such individualities in the determinations lead the way to
the interpretation. I continued by saying that if she only had
a man with such a virile genital she would not have to fear the

* In spite of all the differences between Schemer's conception of dream
symbolism and the one developed here, I must still assert that Scherner68
should be recognised as the true discoverer of symbolism in dreams, and that
the experience of psychoanalysis has brought his book into honourable repute
after it had been considered fantastic for about fifty years.

t From " Nachträge zur Traumdeutung," Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, I.,
No. 5 and 6, 1911.

250 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

officers — that is, she would have nothing to wish from them,
for she is mainly kept from going without protection and
company by her fancies of temptation. This last explanation
of her fear I had already been able to give her repeatedly on
the basis of other material.

It is quite remarkable how the dreamer behaved after this
interpretation. She withdrew her description of the hat, and
claimed not to have said that the two side pieces were hanging
downwards. I was, however, too sure of what I had heard to
allow myself to be misled, and I persisted in it. She was quiet
for a while, and then found the courage to ask why it was that
one of her husband's testicles was lower than the other, and
whether it was the same in all men. With this the peculiar
detail of the hat was explained, and the whole interpretation
was accepted by her. The hat symbol was familiar to me
long before the patient related this dream. From other but
less transparent cases I believe that the hat may also be taken
as a female genital.

2. The little one as the genital — to be run over as a symbol
of sexual intercourse (another dream of the same agoraphobic
patient).

" Her mother sends away her little daughter so that she
must go alone. She rides with her mother to the railroad and
sees her little one walking directly upon the tracks, so that she
cannot avoid being run over. She hears the bones crackle.
(From this she experiences a feeling of discomfort but no real
horror.) She then looks out through the car window to see
whether the parts cannot be seen behind. She then reproaches
her mother for allowing the little one to go out alone."
Analysis. It is not an easy matter to give here a complete
interpretation of the dream. It forms part of a cycle of dreams,
and can be fully understood only in connection with the others.
For it is not easy to get the necessary material sufficiently
isolated to prove the symbolism. The patient at first finds
that the railroad journey is to be interpreted historically as an
allusion to a departure from a sanitorium for nervous diseases,
with the superintendent of which she naturally was in love.
Her mother took her away from this place, and the physician
came to the railroad station and handed her a bouquet of
flowers on leaving ; she felt uncomfortable because her mother

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 251

witnessed this homage. Here the mother, therefore, appears
as a disturber of her love affairs, which is the role actually
played by this strict woman during her daughter's girlhood.
The next thought referred to the sentence : " She then looks
to see whether the parts can be seen behind." In the dream
facade one would naturally be compelled to think of the parts
of the little daughter run over and ground up. The thought,
however, turns in quite a different direction. She recalls
that she once saw her father in the bath-room naked from
behind ; she then begins to talk about the sex differentiation,
and asserts that in the man the genitals can be seen from
behind, but in the woman they cannot. In this connection
she now herself offers the interpretation that the little one is
the genital, her little one (she has a four-year-old daughter)
her own genital. She reproaches her mother for wanting her
to live as though she had no genital, and recognises this re-
proach in the introductory sentence of the dream ; the mother
sends away her little one so that she must go alone. In her
phantasy going alone on the street signifies to have no man and
no sexual relations (coire = to go together), and this she does
not like. According to all her statements she really suffered
as a girl on account of the jealousy of her mother, because she
showed a preference for her father.

The " little one " has been noted * as a symbol for the male
or the female genitals by Stekel, who can refer in this connec-
tion to a very widespread usage of language.

The deeper interpretation of this dream depends upon
another dream of the same night in which the dreamer
identifies herself with her brother. She was a " tomboy,"
and was always being told that she should have been born a
boy. This identification with the brother shows with special
clearness that " the little one " signifies the genital. The
mother threatened him (her) with castration, which could only
be understood as a punishment for playing with the parts,
and the identification, therefore, shows that she herself had
masturbated as a child, though this fact she now retained only

* " Beiträge zur Traumdeutung," Jahrbuch für Psychoanalyt. und psychop.
Forsch., Bd. I., 1909, p. 473. Here also (p. 475) a dream is reported in
which a hat with a feather standing obliquely in the middle symbolises the
(impotent) man.

252 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

in a memory concerning her brother. An early knowledge of
the male genital which she later lost she must have acquired at
that time according to the assertions of this second dream.
Moreover the second dream points to the infantile sexual theory
that girls originate from boys through castration. After I had
told her of this childish belief , she at once confirmed it with an
anecdote in which the boy asks the girl : " Was it cut off ? "
to which the girl replied, " No, it's always been so."

The sending away of the little one, of the genital, in the
first dream therefore also refers to the threatened castration.
Finally she blames her mother for not having been born a boy.

That " being run over " symbolises sexual intercourse would
not be evident from this dream if we were not sure of it from
many other sources.

3. Representation of the genital by structures, stairways,
and shafts. (Dream of a young man inhibited by a father
complex.)

" He is taking a walk with his father in a place which is
surely the Prater, for the Rotunda may be seen in front of which
there is a small front structure to which is attached a captive
balloon ; the balloon, however, seems quite collapsed. His
father asks him what this is all for ; he is surprised at it, but
he explains it to his father. They come into a court in which
lies a large sheet of tin. His father wants to pull off a big
piece of this, but first looks around to see if anyone is watching.
He tells his father that all he needs to do is to speak to the
watchman, and then he can take without any further difficulty
as much as he wants to. From this court a stairway leads
down into a shaft, the walls of which are softly upholstered
something like a leather pocketbook. At the end of this shaft
there is a longer platform, and then a new shaft begins . . ."

Analysis. This dream belongs to a type of patient which
is not favourable from a therapeutic point of view. They
follow in the analysis without offering any resistances whatever
up to a certain point, but from that point on they remain
almost inaccessible. This dream he almost analysed himself.
" The Rotunda," he said, " is my genital, the captive balloon
in front is my penis, about the weakness of which I have
worried. We must, however, interpret in greater detail ; the
Rotunda is the buttock which is regularly associated by the

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 253

child with the genital, the smaller front structure is the
scrotum. In the dream his father asks him what this is all
for — that is, he asks him about the purpose and arrangement
of the genitals. It is quite evident that this state of affairs
should be turned around, and that he should be the questioner.
As such a questioning on the side of the father has never taken
place in reality, we must conceive the dream thought as a wish,
or take it conditionally, as follows : " If I had only asked my
father for sexual enlightenment." The continuation of this
thought we shall soon find in another place.

The court in which the tin sheet is spread out is not to be
conceived symbolically in the first instance, but originates
from his father's place of business. For discretionary reasons
I have inserted the tin for another material in which the father
deals, without, however, changing anything in the verbal ex-
pression of the dream. The dreamer had entered his father's
business, and had taken a terrible dislike to the questionable
practices upon which profit mainly depends. Hence the con-
tinuation of the above dream thought ("if I had only asked
him ") would be : " He would have deceived me just as he
does his customers." For the pulling off, which serves to
represent commercial dishonesty, the dreamer himself gives a
second explanation — namely, onanism. This is not only
entirely familiar to us (see above, p. 234), but agrees very well
with the fact that the secrecy of onanism is expressed by its
opposite (" Why one can do it quite openly "). It, moreover,
agrees entirely with our expectations that the onanistic activity
is again put off on the father, just as was the questioning in the
first scene of the dream. The shaft he at once interprets as
the vagina by referring to the soft upholstering of the walls.
That the act of coition in the vagina is described as a going
down instead of in the usual way as a going up, I have also
found true in other instances.*

The details that at the end of the first shaft there is a
longer platform and then a new shaft, he himself explains
biographically. He had for some time consorted with women
sexually, but had then given it up because of inhibitions and
now hopes to be able to take it up again with the aid of the
treatment. The dream, however, becomes indistinct toward

* Cf. Zentralblatt für psychoanalyse, I.

254 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the end, and to the experienced interpreter it becomes evident
that in the second scene of the dream the influence of another
subject has begun to assert itself ; in this his father's business
and his dishonest practices signify the first vagina represented
as a shaft so that one might think of a reference to the mother.

4. The male genital symbolised by persons and the female
by a landscape.

(Dream of a woman of the lower class, whose husband is a
policeman, reported by B. Dattner.)

. . . Then someone broke into the house and anxiously
called for a policeman. But he went with two tramps by
mutual consent into a church,* to which led a great many
stairs ; f behind the church there was a mountain, J on top of
which a dense forest.§ The policeman was furnished with a
helmet, a gorget, and a cloak. || The two vagrants, who went
along with the policeman quite peaceably, had tied to their
loins sack-like aprons.1T A road led from the church to the
mountain. This road was overgrown on each side with grass
and brushwood, which became thicker and thicker as it reached
the height of the mountain, where it spread out into quite a
forest.

5. A stairway dream.

(Reported and interpreted by Otto Rank.)
For the following transparent pollution dream, I am in-
debted to the same colleague who furnished us with the
dental-irritation dream reported on p. 235.

" I am running down the stairway in the stair-house after
a little girl, whom I wish to punish because she has done some-
thing to me. At the bottom of the stairs some one held the
child for me. (A grown-up woman ?) I grasp it, but do not
know whether I have hit it, for I suddenly find myself in the
middle of the stairway where I practise coitus with the child
(in the air as it were). It is really no coitus, I only rub my
genital on her external genital, and in doing this I see it very
distinctly, as distinctly as I see her head which is lying

* Or chapel — vagina.

t Symbol of coitus. J Mons veneris. § Crines pubis.

|| DemonB in cloaks and capucines are, according to the explanation of
a man versed in the subject, of a phallic nature.
1] The two halves of the scrotum.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 255

sideways. During the sexual act I see hanging to the left and
above me (also as if in the air) two small pictures, landscapes,
representing a house on a green. On the smaller one my
surname stood in the place where the painter's signature
should be ; it seemed to be intended for my birthday present.
A small sign hung in front of the pictures to the effect that
cheaper pictures could also be obtained. I then see myself
very indistinctly lying in bed, just as I had seen myself at
the foot of the stairs, and I am awakened by a feeling of
dampness which came from the pollution."

Interpretation. The dreamer had been in a book-store on
the evening of the day of the dream, where, while he was wait-
ing, he examined some pictures which were exhibited, which
represented motives similar to the dream pictures. He stepped
nearer to a small picture which particularly took his fancy in
order to see the name of the artist, which, however, was quite
unknown to him.

Later in the same evening, in company, he heard about a
Bohemian servant-girl who boasted that her illegitimate child
" was made on the stairs." The dreamer inquired about the
details of this unusual occurrence, and learned that the servant-
girl went with her lover to the home of her parents, where
there was no opportunity for sexual relations, and that the
excited man performed the act on the stairs. In witty allu-
sion to the mischievous expression used about wine-adulterers,
the dreamer remarked, " The child really grew on the cellar
steps."

These experiences of the day, which are quite prominent
in the dream content, were readily reproduced by the dreamer.
But he just as readily reproduced an old fragment of infantile
recollection which was also utilised by the dream. The stair-
house was the house in which he had spent the greatest part
of his childhood, and in which he had first become acquainted
with sexual problems. In this house he used, among other
things, to slide down the banister astride which caused him to
become sexually excited. In the dream he also comes down
the stairs very rapidly — so rapidly that, according to his own
distinct assertions, he hardly touched the individual stairs, but
rather " flew " or " slid down," as we used to say. Upon
reference to this infantile experience, the beginning of the

256 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

dream seems to represent the factor of sexual excitement.
In the same house and in the adjacent residence the dreamer
used to play pugnacious games with the neighbouring children,
in which he satisfied himself just as he did in the dream.

If one recalls from Freud's investigation of sexual sym-
bolism * that in the dream stairs or climbing stairs almost
regularly symbolises coitus, the dream becomes clear. Its
motive power as well as its effect, as is shown by the pollu-
tion, is of a purely libidinous nature. Sexual excitement
became aroused during the sleeping state (in the dream this
is represented by the rapid running or sliding down the stairs)
and the sadistic thread in this is, on the basis of the pugnacious
playing, indicated in the pursuing and overcoming of the child.
The libidinous excitement becomes enhanced and urges to
sexual action (represented in the dream by the grasping of
the child and the conveyance of it to the middle of the stair-
way). Up to this point the dream would be one of pure
sexual symbolism, and obscure for the unpractised dream
interpreter. But this symbolic gratification, which would
have insured undisturbed sleep, was not sufficient for the
powerful libidinous excitement. The excitement leads to an
orgasm, and thus the whole stairway symbolism is unmasked
as a substitute for coitus. Freud lays stress on the rhythmical
character of both actions as one of the reasons for the sexual
utilisation of the stairway symbolism, and this dream especi-
ally seems to corroborate this, for, according to the express
assertion of the dreamer, the rhythm of a sexual act was the
most pronounced feature in the whole dream.

Still another remark concerning the two pictures, which,
aside from their real significance, also have the value of " Weibs-
bilder " (literally woman-pictures, but idiomatically women).
This is at once shown by the fact that the dream deals with
a big and a little picture, just as the dream content presents
a big (grown up) and a little girl. That cheap pictures could
also be obtained points to the prostitution complex, just as
the dreamer's surname on the little picture and the thought
that it was intended for his birthday, point to the parent
complex (to be born on the stairway — to be conceived in
coitus).

* See Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, vol. i., p. 2.

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 257

The indistinct final scene, in which the dreamer sees him-
self on the staircase landing lying in bed and feeling wet,
seems to go back into childhood even beyond the infantile
onanism, and manifestly has its prototype in similarly pleasur-
able scenes of bed-wetting.

6. A modified stair-dream.

To one of my very nervous patients, who was an abstainer,
whose fancy was fixed on his mother, and who repeatedly
dreamed of climbing stairs accompanied by his mother, I once
remarked that moderate masturbation would be less harmful
to him than enforced abstinence. This influence provoked
the following dream :

" His piano teacher reproaches him for neglecting his piano-
playing, and for not practising the Etudes of Moscheles and
dementi's Gradus ad Parnassum." In relation to this he
remarked that the Gradus is only a stairway, and that the
piano itself is only a stairway as it has a scale.

It is correct to say that there is no series of associations
which cannot be adapted to the representation of sexual facts.
I conclude with the dream of a chemist, a young man, who
has been trying to give up his habit of masturbation by
replacing it with intercourse with women.

Preliminary statement. — On the day before the dream he
had given a student instruction concerning Grignard's reaction,
in which magnesium is to be dissolved in absolutely pure
ether under the catalytic influence of iodine. Two days before,
there had been an explosion in the course of the same reaction,
in which the investigator had burned his hand.

Dream I. He is to make phenylmagnesiumbromid ; he sees
the apparatus with particular clearness, but he has substituted
himself for the magnesium. He is now in a curious swaying
attitude. He keeps repeating to himself, " This is the right thing,
it is working, my feet are beginning to dissolve and my knees
are getting soft. Then he reaches down and feels for his feet,
and meanwhile {he does not know how) he takes his legs out of
the crucible, and then again he says to himself, " That cannot
be. . . . Yes, it must be so, it has been done correctly." Then
he partially awakens, and repeats the dream to himself, because
he wants to tell it to me. He is distinctly afraid of the analysis

258 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of the dream. He is much excited during this semi-sleeping state,
and repeats continually, " Phenyl, phenyl."

II. He is in . . . ing with his whole family ; at half-past
eleven. He is to be at the Schottenthor for a rendezvous with a
certain lady, but he does not wake up until half-past eleven. He
says to himself, " It is too late now ; when you get there it will
be half -past twelve." The next instant he sees the whole family
gathered about the table — his mother and the servant girl with
the soup-tureen with particular clearness. Then he says to
himself, " Well, if we are eating already, I certainly can't get
away."

Analysis : He feels sure that even the first dream contains
a reference to the lady whom he is to meet at the rendezvous
(the dream was dreamed during the night before the expected
meeting). The student to whom he gave the instruction is a
particularly unpleasant fellow ; he had said to the chemist :
" That isn't right," because the magnesium was still unaffected,
and the latter answered as though he did not care anything
about it : "It certainly isn't right." He himself must be
this student ; he is as indifferent towards his analysis as
the student is towards his synthesis ; the He in the dream,
however, who accomplishes the operation, is myself. How
unpleasant he must seem to me with his indifference towards
the success achieved !

Moreover, he is the material with which the analysis (syn-
thesis) is made. For it is a question of the success of the
treatment. The legs in the dream recall an impression of the
previous evening. He met a lady at a dancing lesson whom
he wished to conquer ; he pressed her to him so closely that
she once cried out. After he had stopped pressing against
her legs, he felt her firm responding pressure against his lower
thighs as far as just above his knees, at the place mentioned
in the dream. In this situation, then, the woman is the
magnesium in the retort, which is at last working. He is
feminine towards me, as he is masculine towards the woman.
If it will work with the woman, the treatment will also work.
Feeling and becoming aware of himself in the region of his
knees refers to masturbation, and corresponds to his fatigue
of the previous day. . . . The rendezvous had actually been
set for half -past eleven. His wish to over-sleep and to remain

THE MATERIAL OF DREAMS 259

with his usual sexual objects (that is, with masturbation)
corresponds with his resistance.

In relation to the repetition of the name phenyl, he gives
the following thoughts : All these radicals ending in yl have
always been pleasing to him ; they are very convenient to
use : benzyl, azetyl, &c. That, however, explained nothing.
But when I proposed the radical Schlemihl * he laughed
heartily, and related that during the summer he had read a
book by Prevost which contained a chapter : " Les exclus de
l'amour," the description in which made him think of the
Schlemihls, and he added, " That is my case." He would
have again acted the Schlemihl if he had missed the rendezvous.

* This Hebrew word is well known in German-speaking countries, even
among non-Jews, and signifies an unlucky, awkward person. (Translator.)

VI

THE DREAM- WORK

All previous attempts to solve the problems of the dream
have been based directly upon the manifest dream content
as it is retained in the memory, and have undertaken to obtain
an interpretation of the dream from this content, or, if inter-
pretation was dispensed with, to base a judgment of the dream
upon the evidence furnished by this content. We alone are in
possession of new data ; for us a new psychic material inter-
venes between the dream content and the results of our
investigations : and this is the latent dream content or the
dream thoughts which are obtained by our method. We
develop a solution of the dream from this latter, and not
from the manifest dream content. We are also confronted
for the first time with a problem which has not before existed,
that of examining and tracing the relations between the latent
dream thoughts and the manifest dream content, and the
processes through which the former have grown into the
latter.

We regard the dream thoughts and the dream content as
two representations of the same meaning in two different
languages ; or to express it better, the dream content appears
to us as a translation of the dream thoughts into another form
of expression, whose signs and laws of composition we are to
learn by comparing the original with the translation. The
dream thoughts are at once intelligible to us as soon as we
have ascertained them. The dream content is, as it were,
presented in a picture-writing, whose signs are to be trans-
lated one by one into the language of the dream thoughts.
It would of course be incorrect to try to read these signs
according to their values as pictures instead of according to
their significance as signs. For instance, I have before me a
picture-puzzle (rebus) : a house, upon whose roof there
is a boat ; then a running figure whose head has been

260

THE DREAM- WORK 261

apostrophised away, and the like. I might now be tempted
as a critic to consider this composition and its elements non-
sensical. A boat does not belong on the roof of a house and
a person without a head cannot run ; the person, too, is larger
than the house, and if the whole thing is to represent a land-
scape, the single letters of the alphabet do not fit into it, for
of course they do not occur in pure nature. A correct judg-
ment of the picture-puzzle results only if I make no such
objections to the whole and its parts, but if, on the contrary,
I take pains to replace each picture by the syllable or word
which it is capable of representing by means of any sort of
reference, the words which are thus brought together are no
longer meaningless, but may constitute a most beautiful and
sensible expression. Now the dream is a picture-puzzle of
this sort, and our predecessors in the field of dream inter-
pretation have made the mistake of judging the rebus as an
artistic composition. As such it appears nonsensical and
worthless.

(a) The Condensation Work

The first thing which becomes clear to the investigator in
the comparison of the dream content with the dream thoughts
is that a tremendous work of condensation has taken place.
The dream is reserved, paltry, and laconic when compared
with the range and copiousness of the dream thoughts. The
dream when written down fills half a page ; the analysis, in
which the dream thoughts are contained, requires six, eight,
twelve times as much space. The ratio varies with different
dreams ; it never changes its essential meaning, as far as I
have been able to observe. As a rule the extent of the com-
pression which has taken place is under-estimated, owing to
the fact that the dream thoughts which are brought to light
are considered the complete material, while continued work
of interpretation may reveal new thoughts which are con-
cealed behind the dream. We have already mentioned that
one is really never sure of having interpreted a dream com-
pletely ; even if the solution seems satisfying and flawless,
it still always remains possible that there is a further meaning
which is manifested by the same dream. Thus the amount of
condensation is — strictly speaking — indeterminable. An objec-

262 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

tion, which at first sight seems very plausible, might be raised
against the assertion that the disproportion between dream
content and dream thought justifies the conclusion that an
abundant condensation of psychic material has taken place
in the formation of dreams. For we so often have the im-
pression that we have dreamed a great deal throughout the
night and then have forgotten the greater part. The dream
which we recollect upon awakening would thus be only a
remnant of the total dream-work, which would probably
equal the dream thoughts in range if we were able to remember
the former completely. In part this is certainly true ; there
can be no mistake about the observation that the dream is
most accurately reproduced if one tries to remember it im-
mediately after awakening, and that the recollection of it
becomes more and more defective towards evening. On the
other hand, it must be admitted that the impression that we
have dreamed a good deal more than we are able to reproduce
is often based upon an illusion, the cause of which will be
explained later. Moreover, the assumption of condensation
in the dream activity is not affected by the possibility of
forgetting in dreams, for it is proved by groups of ideas belong-
ing to those particular parts of the dream which have remained
in the memory. If a large part of the dream has actually
been lost to memory, we are probably deprived of access to a
new series of dream thoughts. It is altogether unjustifiable
to expect that those portions of the dream which have been
lost also relate to the thoughts with which we are already
acquainted from the analysis of the portions which have been
preserved.

In view of the great number of ideas which analysis fur-
nishes for each individual element of the dream content, the
chief doubt with many readers will be whether it is permissible
to count everything that subsequently comes to mind during
analysis as a part of the dream thoughts — to assume, in other
words, that all these thoughts have been active in the sleeping
state and have taken part in the formation of the dream.
Is it not more probable that thought connections are developed
in the course of analysis which did not participate in the
formation of the dream ? I can meet this doubt only con-
ditionally. It is true, of course, that particular thought

THE DREAM-WORK 263

connections first arise only during analysis ; but one may
always be sure that such new connections have been estab-
lished only between thoughts which have already been con-
nected in the dream thoughts by other means ; the new
connections are, so to speak, corollaries, short circuits, which
are made possible by the existence of other more fundamental
means of connection. It must be admitted that the huge
number of trains of thought revealed by analysis have already
been active in the formation of the dream, for if a chain of
thoughts has been worked out, which seems to be without
connection with the formation of the dream, a thought is
suddenly encountered which, being represented in the dream,
is indispensable to its interpretation — which nevertheless is
inaccessible except through that chain of thoughts. The reader
may here turn to the dream of the botanical monograph,
which is obviously the result of an astonishing condensation
activity, even though I have not given the analysis of it
completely.

But how, then, is the psychic condition during sleep which
precedes dreaming to be imagined ? Do all the dream thoughts
exist side by side, or do they occur one after another, or
are many simultaneous trains of thought constructed from
different centres, which meet later on ? I am of the opinion
that it is not yet necessary to form a plastic conception of
the psychic condition of dream formation. Only let us not
forget that we are concerned with unconscious thought, and
that the process may easily be a different one from that which
we perceive in ourselves in intentional contemplation accom-
panied by consciousness.

The fact, however, that dream formation is based on a
process of condensation, stands indubitable. How, then, is
this condensation brought about ?

If it be considered that of those dream thoughts which are
found only the smallest number are represented in the dream
by means of one of its ideal elements, it might be concluded
that condensation is accomplished by means of ellipsis, in
that the dream is not an accurate translation or a projection
point by point of the dream thoughts, but a very incomplete
and defective reproduction of them. This view, as we shall
soon find, is a very inadequate one. But let us take it as a

264 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

starting point for the present, and ask ourselves : If only a
few of the elements of the dream thoughts get into the dream
content, what conditions determine their choice ?

In order to gain enlightenment on this subject let us turn
our attention to those elements of the dream content which
must have fulfilled the conditions we are seeking. A dream
to the formation of which an especially strong condensation
has contributed will be the most suitable material for this
investigation. I select the dream, cited on page 142, of the
botanical monograph.

Dream content : / have written a monograph upon a
(obscure) certain plant. The book lies before me, I am just
turning over a folded coloured plate. A dried specimen of the
plant is bound with every copy as though from a herbarium.

The most prominent element of this dream is the botanical
monograph. This comes from the impressions received on
the day of the dream ; I had actually seen a monograph on
the genus " cyclamen " in the show-window of a book-store.
The mention of this genus is lacking in the dream content,
in which only the monograph and its relation to botany have
remained. The " botanical monograph " immediately shows
its relation to the work on cocaine which I had once written ;
thought connections proceed from cocaine on the one hand
to a " Festschrift," and on the other to my friend, the eye
specialist, Dr. Koenigstein, who has had a share in the utili-
sation of cocaine. Moreover, with the person of this Dr.
Koenigstein is connected the recollection of the interrupted
conversation which I had had with him on the previous
evening and of the manifold thoughts about remuneration
for medical services among colleagues. This conversation,
then, is properly the actual stimulus of the dream ; the mono-
graph about cyclamen is likewise an actuality but of an indif-
ferent nature ; as I soon see, the " botanical monograph " of
the dream turns out to be a common mean between the two
experiences of the day, and to have been taken over unchanged
from an indifferent impression and bound up with the psycho-
logically significant experience by means of the most abundant
associations.

Not only the combined idea, " botanical monograph,"
however, but also each of the separate elements, " botanical "

THE DREAM-WORK 265

and " monograph," penetrates deeper and deeper into the
confused tangle of the dream thoughts. To " botanical "
belong the recollections of the person of Professor Gartner
(German : Gärtner = gardener), of his blooming wife, of my
patient whose name is Flora, and of a lady about whom I told
the story of the forgotten flowers. Gartner, again, is connected
with the laboratory and the conversation with Koenig stein ;
the mention of the two female patients also belongs to the
same conversation. A chain of thoughts, one end of which
is formed by the title of the hastily seen monograph, leads
off in the other direction from the lady with the flowers to the
favourite flowers of my wife. Besides this, " botanical "
recalls not only an episode at the Gymnasium, but an examina-
tion taken while I was at the university ; and a new subject
matter — my hobbies — which was broached in the conversa-
tion already mentioned, is connected by means of my
humorously so-called favourite flower, the artichoke, with the
chain of thoughts proceeding from the forgotten flowers ;
behind " artichoke " there is concealed on the one hand a
recollection of Italy, and on the other a reminiscence of a
childhood scene in which I first formed my connection with
books which has since grown so intimate. " Botanical,"
then, is a veritable nucleus, the centre for the dream of many
trains of thought, which, I may assure the reader, were
correctly and justly brought into relation to one another in
the conversation referred to. Here we find ourselves in a
thought factory, in which, as in the " Weaver's Masterpiece " :

" One tread moves thousands of threads,
The little shuttles fly back and forth,
The threads flow on unseen,
One stroke ties thousands of knots."

" Monograph " in the dream, again, has a bearing upon
two subjects, the one-sidedness of my studies and the costli-
ness of my hobbies.

The impression is gained from this first investigation that
the elements " botanical " and " monograph " have been
accepted in the dream content because they were able to show
the most extensive connections with the dream thoughts,
and thus represent nuclei in which a great number of dream
thoughts come together, and because they have manifold

266 THE INTERPRETATION OP DREAMS

significance for the dream interpretation. The fact upon
which this explanation is based may be expressed in another
form : Every element of the dream content turns out to be
over-determined — that is, it enjoys a manifold representation
in the dream thoughts.

We shall learn more by testing the remaining component
parts of the dream as to their occurrence in the dream thoughts.
The coloured plate refers (cf. the analysis on p. 145) to a new
subject, the criticism passed upon my work by colleagues,
and to a subject already represented in the dream — my
hobbies — and also to a childish recollection in which I pull to
pieces the book with the coloured plates ; the dried specimen
of the plant relates to an experience at the Gymnasium
centering about and particularly emphasizing the herbarium.
Thus I see what sort of relation exists between the dream
content and dream thoughts : Not only do the elements of
the dream have a manifold determination in the dream
thoughts, but the individual dream thoughts are represented
in the dream by many elements. Starting from an element of
the dream the path of associations leads to a number of dream
thoughts ; and from a dream thought to several elements of
the dream. The formation of the dream does not, therefore,
take place in such fashion that a single one of the dream
thoughts or a group of them furnishes the dream content
with an abridgment as its representative therein, and that
then another dream thought furnishes another abridgment
as its representative — somewhat as popular representatives
are elected from among the people — but the whole mass of the
dream thoughts is subjected to a certain elaboration, in the
course of which those elements that receive the greatest and
completest support stand out in relief, analogous, perhaps, to
election by scrutins des listes. Whatever dream I may subject
to such dismemberment, I always find the same fundamental
principle confirmed — that the dream elements are constructed
from the entire mass of the dream thoughts and that every one
of them appears in relation to the dream thoughts to have a
multiple determination.

It is certainly not out of place to demonstrate this relation
of the dream content to the dream thoughts by means of a
fresh example, which is distinguished by a particularly artful

THE DREAM-WOUK 26?

intertwining of reciprocal relations. The dream is that of a
patient whom I am treating for claustrophobia (fear in enclosed
spaces). It will soon become evident why I feel myself called
upon to entitle this exceptionally intellectual piece of dream
activity in the following manner :

II. " A Beautiful Dream "

The dreamer is riding with much company to X-street, where
there is a modest road-house (which is not the fact). A
theatrical performance is being given in its rooms. He is first
audience, then actor. Finally the company is told to change
their clothes, in order to get back into the city. Some of the
people are assigned to the rooms on the ground floor, others to
the first floor. Then a dispute arises. Those above are angry
because those below have not yet finished, so that they cannot
come down. His brother is upstairs, he is below, and he is angry
at his brother because there is such crowding. (This part
obscure.) Besides it has already been decided upon their arrival
who is to be upstairs and who down. Then he goes alone over
the rising ground, across which X-street leads toward the city,
and he has such difficulty and hardship in walking that he cannot
move from the spot. An elderly gentleman joins him and scolds
about the King of Italy. Finally, towards the end of the rising
ground walking becomes much easier.

The difficulties experienced in walking were so distinct
that for some time after waking he was in doubt whether
they were dream or reality.

According to the manifest content, this dream can hardly
be praised. Contrary to the rules, I shall begin with that
portion which the dreamer referred to as the most distinct.

The difficulties which were dreamed of, and which were
probably experienced during the dream — difficult climbing
accompanied by dyspnoea — is one of the symptoms which
the patient had actually shown years before, and which, in
conjunction with other symptoms, was at that time attributed
to tuberculosis (probably hysterically simulated). We are
already from exhibition dreams acquainted with this sensation
of being hindered, peculiar to the dream, and here again we
find it used for the purpose of any kind of representation, as
an ever-ready material. That part of the dream content

268 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

which ascribes the climbing as difficult at first, and as becoming
easier at the end of the hill, made me think while it was being
told of the well-known masterful introduction to Sappho
by A. Daudet. Here a young man carries the girl whom
he loves upstairs — she is at first as light as a feather ; but the
higher he mounts the more heavily she weighs upon his arm,
and this scene symbolises a course of events by recounting
which Daudet tries to warn young men not to waste serious
affection upon girls of humble origin or of questionable past.*
Although I knew that my patient had recently had a love
affair with a lady of the theatre, and had broken it off, I did
not expect to find that the interpretation which had occurred
to me was correct. Moreover, the situation in Sappho was the
reverse of that in the dream ; in the latter the climbing was
difficult at the beginning and easy later on ; in the novel the
symbolism serves only if what was at first regarded as easy
finally turns out to be a heavy load. To my astonishment,
the patient remarked that the interpretation corresponded
closely to the plot of a play which he had seen on the evening
before at the theatre. The play was called Round about
Vienna, and treated of the career of a girl who is respectable
at first but later goes over to the demi-monde, who has affairs
with persons in high places, thus " climbing," but finally
" goes down " faster and faster. This play had reminded him
of another entitled From Step to Step, in the advertisement
of which had appeared a stairway consisting of several
steps.

Now to continue the interpretation. The actress with
whom he had had his most recent affair, a complicated one,
had lived in X-street. There is no inn in this street. How-
ever, while he was spending a part of the summer in Vienna
for the sake of the lady, he had lodged (German abgestiegen=
stopped, literally stepped off) at a little hotel in the neighbour-
hood. As he was leaving the hotel he said to the cab-driver,
" I am glad I didn't get any vermin anyway (which incidentally
is one of his phobias). Whereupon the cab-driver answered :
" How could anybody stop there ! It isn't a hotel at all,
it's really nothing but a road-house ! "

* In estimating this description of the author one may recall the signi-
ficance of stairway dreams, referred to on p. 246.

THE DREAM-WORK 269

The road-house immediately suggests to the dreamer's
recollection a quotation :

" Of that marvellous host
I was once a guest."

But the host in the poem by Uhland is an apple tree. Now
a second quotation continues the train of thought :

Faust {dancing with the young witch).

" A lovely dream once came to me ;
I then beheld an apple tree,
And there two fairest apples shone :
They lured me so, I climbed thereon."

The Fair One.

" Apples have been desired by you,
Since first in Paradise they grew ;
And I am moved with joy to know
That such within my garden grow."

Translated by Bayard Taylor.

There remains not the slightest doubt what is meant by
the apple tree and the apples. A beautiful bosom stood high
among the charms with which the actress had bewitched our
dreamer.

According to the connections of the analysis we had every
reason to assume that the dream went back to an impression
from childhood. In this case it must have reference to the
nurse of the patient, who is now a man of nearly fifty years
of age. The bosom of the nurse is in reality a road-house for
the child. The nurse as well as Daudet's Sappho appears as
an allusion to his abandoned sweetheart.

The (elder) brother of the patient also appears in the
dream content ; he is upstairs, the dreamer himself is below.
This again is an inversion, for the brother, as I happen to know,
has lost his social position, my patient has retained his. In
reporting the dream content the dreamer avoided saying
that his brother was upstairs and that he himself was down.
It would have been too frank an expression, for a person is
said to be " down and out " when he has lost his fortune and
position. Now the fact that at this point in the dream some-
thing is represented as inverted must have a meaning. The
inversion must apply rather to some other relation between

270 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the dream thoughts and dream content. There is an in-
dication which suggests how this inversion is to be taken.
It obviously applies to the end of the dream, where the circum-
stances of climbing are the reverse of those in Sappho. Now it
may easily be seen what inversion is referred to ; in Sappho
the man carries the woman who stands in a sexual relation
to him ; in the dream thoughts, inversely, a woman carries
a man, and as this state of affairs can only occur during
childhood, the reference is again to the nurse who carries
the heavy child. Thus the final portion of the dream
succeeds in representing Sappho and the nurse in the same
allusion.

Just as the name Sappho has not been selected by the
poet without reference to a Lesbian custom, so the elements
of the dream in which persons act above and below, point to
fancies of a sexual nature with which the dreamer is occupied
and which as suppressed cravings are not without connection
with his neurosis. Dream interpretation itself does not show
that these are fancies and not recollections of actual happen-
ings ; it only furnishes us with a set of thoughts and leaves
us to determine their value as realities. Real and fantastic
occurrences at first appear here as of equal value — and not
only here but also in the creation of more important psychic
structures than dreams. Much company, as we already
know, signifies a secret. The brother is none other than a
representative, drawn into the childhood scene by " fancying
backwards," of all of the later rivals for the woman. Through
the agency of an experience which is indifferent in itself, the
episode with the gentleman who scolds about the King of
Italy again refers to the intrusion of people of low rank into
aristocratic society. It is as though the warning which
Daudet gives to youth is to be supplemented by a similar
warning applicable to the suckling child.*

In order that we may have at our disposal a third example
for the study of condensation in dream formation, I shall cite

* The fantastic nature of the situation relating to the nurse of the
dreamer is shown by the objectively ascertained circumstance that the nurse
in this case was liis mother. Furthermore, I may call attention to the
regret of the young man in the anecdote (p. 172), that he had not taken
better advantage of his opportunity with the nurse as probably the source
of the present dream.

THE DREAM-WORK 271

the partial analysis of another dream for which I am in-
debted to an elderly lady who is being psychoanalytically
treated. In harmony with the condition of severe anxiety
from which the patient suffered, her dreams contained a great
abundance of sexual thought material, the discovery of which
astonished as well as frightened her. Since I cannot carry
the interpretation of the dream to completion, the material
seems to fall apart into several groups without apparent
connection.

III. Content of the dream : She remembers that she has
two June bugs in a box, which she must set at liberty, for otherwise
they will suffocate. She opens the box, and the bugs are quite
exhausted ; one of them flies out of the window, but the other is
crushed on the casement while she is shutting the window, as some
one or other requests her to do (expressions of disgust).

Analysis : Her husband is away travelling, and her
fourteen-year-old daughter is sleeping in the bed next to her.
In the evening the little one calls her attention to the fact
that a moth has fallen into her glass of water ; but she neglects
to take it out, and feels sorry for the poor little creature in
the morning. A story which she had read in the evening told
of boys throwing a cat into boiling water, and the twitchings
of the animal were described. These are the occasions for
the dream, both of which are indifferent in themselves. She
is further occupied with the subject of cruelty to animals.
Years before, while they were spending the summer at a
certain place, her daughter was very cruel to animals. She
started a butterfly collection, and asked her for arsenic with
which to kill the butterflies. Once it happened that a moth
flew about the room for a long time with a needle through its
body ; on another occasion she found that some moths which
had been kept for metamorphosis had died of starvation.
The same child while still at a tender age was in the habit
of pulling out the wings of beetles and butterflies ; now she
would shrink in horror from these cruel actions, for she has
grown very kind.

Her mind is occupied with this contrast. It recalls another
contrast, the one between appearance and disposition, as it is
described in Adam Bede by George Eliot. There a beautiful
but vain and quite stupid girl is placed side by side with an

272 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

ugly but high-minded one. The aristocrat who seduces the
little goose, is opposed to the working man who feels aristo-
cratic, and behaves accordingly. It is impossible to tell
character from people's looks. Who could tell from her looks
that she is tormented by sensual desires ?

In the same year in which the little girl started her butterfly
collection, the region in which they were staying suffered
much from a pest of June bugs. The children made havoc
among the bugs, and crushed them cruelly. At that time she
saw a person who tore the wings off the June bugs and ate
them. She herself had been born in June and also married
in June. Three days after the wedding she wrote a letter
home, telling how happy she was. But she was by no means
happy.

During the evening before the dream she had rummaged
among her old letters and had read various ones, comical and
serious, to her family — an extremely ridiculous letter from a
piano-teacher who had paid her attention when she was a
girl, as well as one from an aristocratic admirer.*

She blames herself because a bad book by de Maupassant
had fallen into the hands of one of her daughters, f The arsenic
which her little girl asks for recalls the arsenic pills which
restored the power of youth to the Due de Mora in Nabob.

" Set at liberty " recalls to her a passage from the Magic

Flute :

" I cannot compel you to love,
But I will not give you your liberty."

" June bugs " suggests the speech of Katie : J

" I love you like a little beetle."

Meanwhile the speech from Tannhauser : " For you are
wrought with evil passion."

She is living in fear and anxiety about her absent husband.
The dread that something may happen to him on the journey
is expressed in numerous fancies of the day. A little while
before, during the analysis, she had come upon a complaint

* This is the real inciter of the dream.

t By way of supplement. Such books are poison to a young girl. She
herself in youth had drawn much information from forbidden books.

% A further train of thought leads to Penthesileia by the same author :
cruelty towards her lover.

THE DREAM-WORK 273

about his " senility " in her unconscious thoughts. The wish
thought which this dream conceals may perhaps best be
conjectured if I say that several days before the dream she
was suddenly astounded by a command which she directed
to her husband in the midst of her work : "Go hang yourself."
It was found that a few hours before she had read somewhere
that a vigorous erection is induced when a person is hanged.
It was for the erection which freed itself from repression in
this terror-inspiring veiled form. " Go hang yourself " is as
much as to say : " Get up an erection, at any cost." Dr.
Jenkin's arsenic pills in Nabob belong in this connection ; for
it was known to the patient that the strongest aphrodisiac,
cantharides, is prepared by crushing bugs (so-called Spanish
flies). The most important part of the dream content has a
significance to this effect.

Opening and shutting the window is the subject of a stand-
ing quarrel with her husband. She herself likes to sleep with
plenty of air, and her husband does not. Exhaustion is the
chief ailment of which she complains these days.

In all three of the dreams just cited I have emphasized by
italics those phrases where one of the elements of the dream
recurs in the dream thoughts in order to make the manifold
references of the former obvious. Since, however, the
analysis of none of these dreams has been carried to com-
pletion, it will be well worth while to consider a dream with a
fully detailed analysis, in order to demonstrate the manifold
determination of its content. I select the dream of Irma's
injection for this purpose. We shall see without effort in
this example that the condensation work has used more than
one means for the formation of the dream.

The chief person in the content of the dream is my patient
Irma, who is seen with the features which belong to her in
waking life, and who therefore in the first instance represents
herself. But her attitude as I examine her at the window is
taken from the recollection of another person, of the lady for
whom I should like to exchange my patient, as the dream
thoughts show. In as far as Irma shows a diphtheritic mem-
brane which recalls my anxiety about my eldest daughter,
she comes to represent this child of mine, behind whom is
concealed the person of the patient who died from intoxication

s

274 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

and who is brought into connection by the identity of her
name. In the further course of the dream the significance of
Irma's personality changes (without the alteration of her
image as it is seen in the dream) ; she becomes one of the
children whom we examine in the public dispensaries for
children's diseases, where my friends show the difference of
their mental capabilities. The transference was obviously
brought about through the idea of my infant daughter. By
means of her unwillingness to open her mouth the same Irma
is changed into an allusion to another lady who was once
examined by me, and besides that to my wife, in the same
connection. Furthermore, in the morbid transformations
which I discover in her throat I have gathered allusions to a
great number of other persons.

All these people whom I encounter as I follow the associa-
tions suggested by " Irma," do not appear personally in the
dream ; they are concealed behind the dream person " Irma,"
who is thus developed into a collective image, as might be
expected, with contradictory features. Irma comes to re-
present these other persons, who are discarded in the work
of condensation, in that I cause to happen to her all the things
which recall these persons detail for detail.

I may also construct a collective person for the con-
densation of the dream in another manner, by uniting the
actual features of two or more persons in one dream image.
It is in this manner that Dr. M. in my dream was constructed,
he bears the name of Dr. M., and speaks and acts as Dr. M.
does, but his bodily characteristics and his suffering belong to
another person, my eldest brother ; a single feature, paleness,
is doubly determined, owing to the fact that it is common to
both persons. Dr. R. in my dream about my uncle is a similar
composite person. But here the dream image is prepared in
still another manner. I have not united features peculiar
to the one with features of the other, and thereby abridged
the remembered image of each by certain features, but I have
adopted the method employed by Galton in producing family
portraits, by which he projects both pictures upon one another,
whereupon the common features stand out in stronger relief,
while those which do not coincide neutralize one another and
become obscure in the picture. In the dream of my uncle the

THE DREAM-WORK 275

blond beard stands out in relief, as an emphasized feature, from
the physiognomy, which belongs to two persons, and which is
therefore blurred ; furthermore the beard contains an allusion
to my father and to myself, which is made possible by its
reference to the fact of growing grey.

The construction of collective and composite persons is
one of the chief resources of the activity of dream condensa-
tion. There will soon be an occasion for treating of this in
another connection.

The notion " dysentery " in the dream about the injection
likewise has a manifold determination, on the one hand
because of its paraphasic assonance with diphtheria, and on
the other because of its reference to the patient, whom I have
sent to the Orient, and whose hysteria has been wrongly
recognised.

The mention of " propyls " in the dream also proves to be
an interesting case of condensation. Not " propyls " but
" amyls " were contained in the dream thoughts. One might
think that here a simple displacement had occurred in the
dream formation. And this is the case, but the displacement
serves the purposes of condensation, as is shown by the
following supplementary analysis. If I dwell for a moment
upon the word " propyls," its assonance to the word " pro-
pylseum " suggests itself to me. But the propylseum is to be
found not only in Athens but also in Munich. In the latter
city I visited a friend the year before who was seriously ill,
and the reference to him becomes unmistakable on account of
trimethylamin, which follows closely upon propyls.

I pass over the striking circumstance that here, as else-
where in the analysis of dreams, associations of the most widely
different values are employed for the establishment of thought
connections as though they were equivalent, and I yield to the
temptation to regard the process by which amyls in the dream
thoughts are replaced by propyls, as though it were plastic
in the dream content.

On the one hand is the chain of ideas about my friend
Otto, who does not understand me, who thinks I am in the
wrong, and who gives me the cordial that smells like amyls ;
on the other the chain of ideas — connected with the first by
contrast — about my friend William, who understands me and

276 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

who would always think I was in the right, and to whom I
am indebted for so much valuable information about the
chemistry of the sexual processes.

Those characteristics of the associations centering about
Otto which ought particularly to attract my attention are
determined by the recent occasions which are responsible for
the dream ; amyls belong to these elements so determined
which are destined to get into the dream content. The group
of associations " William " is distinctly vivified by the con-
trast to Otto, and the elements in it which correspond to those
already excited in the " Otto " associations are thrown into
relief. In this whole dream I am continually referring to a
person who excites my displeasure and to another person whom
I can oppose to him or her at will, and I conjure up the friend
as against the enemy, feature for feature. Thus amyls in the
Otto-group suggests recollections in the other group belonging
to chemistry ; trimethylamin, which receives support from
several quarters, finds its way into the dream content.
" Amyls," too, might have got into the dream content without
undergoing change, but it yields to the influence of the
" William " group of associations, owing to the fact that an
element which is capable of furnishing a double determina-
tion for amyls is sought out from the whole range of recollec-
tions which the name " William " covers. The association
" propyls " lies in the neighbourhood of amyls ; Munich with
the propylseum comes to meet amyls from the series of associa-
tions belonging to " William." Both groups are united in
propyls — propylceum. As though by a compromise, this inter-
mediary element gets into the dream content. Here a
common mean which permits of a manifold determination has
been created. It thus becomes perfectly obvious that manifold
determination must facilitate penetration into the dream
content. A displacement of attention from what is really
intended to something lying near in the associations has
thoughtlessly taken place, for the sake of this mean-formation.

The study of the injection dream has now enabled us to
get some insight into the process of condensation which takes
place in the formation of dreams. The selection of those
elements which occur in the dream content more than once,
the formation of new unities (collective persons, composite

THE DREAM-WORK 277

images), and the construction of the common mean, these we
have been able to recognise as details of the condensing
process. The purpose which is served by condensation and
the means by which it is brought about will be investigated
when we come to study the psychic processes in the formation
of dreams as a whole. Let us be content for the present
with establishing dream condensation as an important relation
between the dream thoughts and the dream content.

The condensing activity of the dream becomes most tangible
when it has selected words and names as its object. In general
words are often treated as things by the dream, and thus
undergo the same combinations, displacements, and sub-
stitutions, and therefore also condensations, as ideas of things.
The results of such dreams are comical and bizarre word
formations. Upon one occasion when a colleague had sent
me one of his essays, in which he had, in my judgment, over-
estimated the value of a recent physiological discovery and
had expressed himself in extravagant terms, I dreamed the
following night a sentence which obviously referred to this
treatise : " That is in true norekdal style." The solution of
this word formation at first gave me difficulties, although it
was unquestionably formed as a parody after the pattern of
the superlatives " colossal," " pyramidal " ; but to tell where
it came from was not easy. At last the monster fell apart
into the two names Nora and Ekdal from two well-known
plays by Ibsen. I had previously read a newspaper essay on
Ibsen by the same author, whose latest work I was thus
criticising in the dream.

II.* One of my female patients dreams that a man with a
light beard and a peculiar glittering eye is pointing to a sign board
attached to a tree which reads : uclamparia — wet.

Analysis. The man was rather authoritative looking, and
his peculiar glittering eye at once recalled St. Paul's Cathedral,
near Rome, where she saw in mosaics the Popes that have so
far ruled. One of the early Popes had a golden eye (this was
realty an optical illusion which the guides usually call attention
to ) . Further associations showed that the general physiognomy
corresponded to her own clergyman (Pope), and the shape of
the light beard recalled her doctor (myself), while the stature of
* Given by translator as author's example could not be translated.

278 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the man in the dream recalled her father. All these persons
stand in the same relation to her ; they are all guiding and
directing her course of life. On further questioning, the
golden eye recalled gold — money — the rather expensive
psychoanalytic treatment which gives her a great deal of
concern. Gold, moreover, recalls the gold cure for alcoholism
— Mr. D., whom she would have married if it had not been for
his clinging to the disgusting alcohol habit — she does not
object to a person taking an occasional drink ; she herself
sometimes drinks beer and cordials — this again brings her back
to her visit to St. Paul's without the walls and its surroundings.
She remembers that in the neighbouring monastery of the
Three Fountains she drank a liquor made of eucalyptus by
the Trappist monks who inhabit this monastery. She then
relates how the monks transformed this malarial and swampy
region into a dry and healthful neighbourhood by planting
there many eucalyptus trees. The word " uclamparia "
then resolves itself into eucalyptus and malaria, and the word
" wet " refers to the former swampy nature of the place. Wet
also suggests dry. Dry is actually the name of the man
whom she would have married except for his over-indulgence
in alcohol. The peculiar name of Dry is of Germanic origin
(drei = three) and hence alludes to the Abbey of the Three
(drei) Fountains above mentioned. In talking about Mr. Dry's
habit she used the strong words, " He could drink a fountain."
Mr. Dry jocosely refers to his habit by saying, " You know I
must drink because I am always dry " (referring to his name).
The eucalyptus also refers to her neurosis, which was at first
diagnosed as malaria. She went to Italy because her attacks
of anxiety, which were accompanied by marked trembling
and shivering, were thought to be of malarial origin. She
bought some eucalyptus oil from the monks, and she maintains
that it has done her much good.

The condensation uclamparia — wet is therefore the point of
junction for the dream as well as for the neurosis.*

* The same analysis and synthesis of syllables — a veritable chemistry of
.syllables — serves ns for many a jest in waking life. "What is the cheapest
method of obtaining silver? You go to a field where silver-berries are
growing and pick them ; then the berries are eliminated and the silver
remains in a free state." The first person who read and criticised this book
made the objection to me — which other readers will probably repeat—" that

THE DREAM- WORK 279

III. In a somewhat long and wild dream of my own, the
chief point of which is apparently a sea voyage, it happens
that the next landing is called Hearsing and the one farther on
Fliess. The latter is the name of my friend living in B.,who
has often been the objective point of my travels. But Hearsing
is put together from the names of places in the local environ-
ment of Vienna, which so often end in ing : Hietzing, Liesing,
Moedling (Medelitz, " mese deliciae," my own name, " my
joy") (joy = German Freude), and the English hearsay,
which points to libel and establishes the relation to the in-
different dream excitement of the day — a poem in the
Fliegende Blaetter about a slanderous dwarf, " Saidhe
Hashesaid." By connecting the final syllable " ing " with the
name Fliess, " Vlissingen " is obtained, which is a real port on
the sea-voyage which my brother passes when he comes to
visit us from England. But the English for Vlissingen is
Flushing, which signifies blushing and recalls erythrophobia
(fear of blushing), which I treat, and also reminds me of a
recent publication by Bechterew about this neurosis, which
has given occasion for angry feelings in me.

IV. Upon another occasion I had a dream which consisted
of two parts. The first was the vividly remembered word
" Autodidasker," the second was truthfully covered by a
short and harmless fancy which had been developed a few
days before, and which was to the effect that I must tell
Professor N., when I saw him next : " The patient about
whose condition I last consulted you is really suffering from
a neurosis, just as you suspected." The coinage " Auto-
didasker " must, then, not only satisfy the requirement that it
should contain or represent a compressed meaning, but also

the dreamer often appears too witty." That is true, as long as it applies
to the dreamer ; it involves a condemnation only when its application is
extended to the interpreter of the dream. In waking reality I can make
very little claim to the predicate "witty" ; if my dreams appear witty, this
is not the fault of my individuality, but of the peculiar psychological con-
ditions under which the dream is fabricated, and is intimately connected
with the theory of wit and the comical. The dream becomes witty because
the shortest and most direct way to the expression of its thoughts is barred
for it : the dream is under constraint. My readers may convince themselves
that the dreams of my patients give the impression of being witty (attempt-
ing to be witty), in the same degree and in a greater than my own.
Nevertheless this reproach impelled me to compare the technique of wit
with the dream activity, which I have done in a book published in 1905,
on Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious. (Author.)

280 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

that this meaning should have a valid connection with my
purpose, which is repeated from waking life, of giving Pro-
fessor N. his due credit.

Now Autodidasker is easily separated into author (German
Autor), autodidact, and Lasker, with whom is associated the
name Lasalle. The first of these words leads to the occasion
of the dream — which this time is significant. I had brought
home to my wife several volumes by a well-known author,
who is a friend of my brother's, and who, as I have learned,
comes from the same town as I (J. J. David). One evening
she spoke to me about the profound impression which the
touching sadness of a story in one of David's novels, about a
talented but degenerate person, had made upon her, and our
conversation turned upon the indications of talent which we
perceive in our own children. Under the influence of what she
had just read, my wife expressed a concern relative to our
children, and I comforted her with the remark that it is just
such dangers that can be averted by education. During the
night my train of thoughts proceeded further, took up the
concern of my wife, and connected with it all sorts of other
things. An opinion which the poet had expressed to my
brother upon the subject of marriage showed my thoughts a
by-path which might lead to a representation in the dream.
This path led to Breslau, into which city a lady who was a
very good friend of ours had married. I found in Breslau
Lasker and Las alle as examples realising our concern about
being ruined at the hands of a woman, examples which
enabled me to represent both manifestations of this influence
for the bad at once.* The " Cherchez la femme," in which
these thoughts may be summed up, when taken in another
sense, brings me to my brother, who is still unmarried and
whose name is Alexander. Now I see that Alex, as we ab-
breviate the name, sounds almost like inversion of Lasker
and that this factor must have taken part in giving my
thoughts their detour by way of Breslau.

But this playing with names and syllables in which I am
here engaged contains still another meaning. The wish that

* Lasker died of progressive paralysis, that is of the consecpiences of an
infection caught from a woman (lues) ; Lasalle, as is well known, was killed
in a duel on account of a lady.

THE DREAM-WORK 281

my brother may have a happy family life is represented by it
in the following manner. In the artistic romance UCEuvre,
the writer, as is well known, has incidentally given an episodic
account of himself and of his own family happiness, and he
appears under the name of Sandoz. Probably he has taken
the following course in the name transformation. Zola when
inverted (as children like so much to do) gives Aloz. But that
was still too undisguised for him ; therefore he replaced the
syllable Al, which stands at the beginning of the name
Alexander, by the third syllable of the same name, sand, and
thus Sandoz came about. In a similar manner my autodi-
dasher originated.

My fancy, that I am telling Professor N. that the patient
whom we had both seen is suffering from a neurosis, got into
the dream in the following manner. Shortly before the close
of my working year I received a patient in whose case my
diagnosis failed me. A serious organic affliction — perhaps
some changes in the spine — was to be assumed, but could not
be proved. It would have been tempting to diagnose the
trouble as a neurosis, and this would have put an end to all
difficulties, had it not been for the fact that the sexual
anamnesis, without which I am unwilling to admit a neurosis,
was so energetically denied by the patient. In my embarrass-
ment I called to my assistance the physician whom I respect
most of all men (as others do also), and to whose authority I
surrender most completely. He listened to my doubts, told
me he thought them justified, and then said : " Keep on
observing the man, it is probably a neurosis." Since I know
that he does not share my opinions about the etiology of
neuroses, I suppressed my disagreement, but I did not conceal
my scepticism. A few days after I informed the patient that
I did not know what to do with him, and advised him to go
to some one else. Thereupon, to my great astonishment, he
began to beg my pardon for having lied to me, saying that he
had felt very much ashamed ; and now he revealed to me just
that piece of sexual etiology which I had expected, and which
I found necessary for assuming the existence of a neurosis.
This was a relief to me, but at the same time a humiliation ;
for I had to admit that my consultant, who was not dis-
concerted by the absence of anamnesis, had made a correct

282 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

observation. I made up my mind to tell him about it when I
saw him again, and to say to him that he had been in the
right and I in the wrong.

This is just what I do in the dream. But what sort of a
wish is supposed to be fulfilled if I acknowledge that I am in
the wrong ? This is exactly my wish ; I wish to be in the
wrong with my apprehensions — that is to say, I wish that my
wife whose fears I have appropriated in the dream thoughts
may remain in the wrong. The subject to which the matter
of being in the right or in the wrong is related in the dream is
not far distant from what is really interesting to the dream
thoughts. It is the same pair of alternatives of either organic
or functional impairment through a woman, more properly
through the sexual life — either tabetic paralysis or a neurosis
— with which the manner of Lasalle's ruin is more or less
loosely connected.

In this well-joined dream (which, however, is quite trans-
parent with the help of careful analysis) Professor N. plays a
part not merely on account of this analogy and of my wish to
remain in the wrong, or on account of the associated references
to Breslau and to the family of our friend who is married
there — but also on account of the following little occurrence
which was connected with our consultation. After he had
attended to our medical task by giving the above mentioned
suggestion, his interest was directed to personal matters.
" How many children have you now ? " — " Six." — A gesture
of respect and reflection. — " Girls, boys ? " — " Three of each.
They are my pride and my treasure." — " Well, there is no
difficulty about the girls, but the boys give trouble later on
in their education." I replied that until now they had been
very tractable ; this second diagnosis concerning the future
of my boys of course pleased me as little as the one he had
made earlier, namely, that my patient had only a neurosis.
These two impressions, then, are bound together by contiguity,
by being successively received, and if I incorporate the story
of the neurosis into the dream, I substitute it for the conversa-
tion upon education which shows itself to be even more closely
connected with the dream thoughts owing to the fact that it
has such an intimate bearing upon the subsequently expressed
concerns of my wife. Thus even my fear that N. may turn out

THE DREAM- WORK 283

to be right in his remarks on the educational difficulties in the
case of boys is admitted into the dream content, in that it is
concealed behind the representation of my wish that I may be
wrong in such apprehensions. The same fancy serves without
change to represent both conflicting alternatives.

The verbal compositions of the dream are very similar
to those which are known to occur in paranoia, but which are
also found in hysteria and in compulsive ideas. The linguistic
habits of children, who at certain periods actually treat words
as objects and invent new languages and artificial syntaxes,
are in this case the common source for the dream as well as for
psy choneuroses .

When speeches occur in the dream, which are expressly
distinguished from thoughts as such, it is an invariable rule
that the dream speech has originated from a remembered
speech in the dream material. Either the wording has been
preserved in its integrity, or it has been slightly changed in
the course of expression ; frequently the dream speech is
pieced together from various recollections of speeches, while
the wording has remained the same and the meaning has
possibly been changed so as to have two or more significations.
Not infrequently the dream speech serves merely as an allusion
to an incident, at which the recollected speech occurred.*

(6) The Work of Displacement

Another sort of relation, which is no less significant, must
have come to our notice while we were collecting examples
of dream condensation. We have seen that those elements
which obtrude themselves in the dream content as its essential
components play a part in the dream thoughts which is by
no means the same. As a correlative to this the converse of
this thesis is also true. That which is clearly the essential
thing in the dream thoughts need not be represented in the
dream at all. The dream, as it were, is eccentric ; its contents
are grouped about other elements than the dream thoughts

* In the case of a young man who was suffering from obsessions, but
whose intellectual functions were intact and highly developed, I recently
found the only exception to this rule. The speeches which occurred in his
dreams did not originate in speeches which he had heard or had made him-
self, but corresponded to the undisfigured wording of his obsessive thoughts,
which only came to his consciousness in a changed state while he was awake.

284 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

as a central point. Thus, for example, in the dream about
the botanical monograph the central point of the dream
content is apparently the element " botanical " ; in the
dream thoughts we are concerned with the complications and
conflicts which result from services rendered among colleagues
which put them under obligations to one another, subse-
quently with the reproach that I am in the habit of sacrificing
too much to my hobbies, and the element " botanical " would
in no case find a place in this nucleus of the dream thoughts
if it were not loosely connected with it by an antithesis, for
botany was never among my favourite studies. In the Sappho
dream of my patient the ascending and descending, being
upstairs and down, is made the central point ; the dream,
however, is concerned with the danger of sexual relations
with persons of low degree, so that only one of the elements of
the dream thoughts seems to have been taken over into the
dream content, albeit with unseemly elaboration. Similarly
in the dream about June bugs, whose subject is the relation
of sexuality to cruelty, the factor of cruelty has indeed re-
appeared but in a different connection and without the mention
of the sexual, that is to say, it has been torn from its context
and transformed into something strange. Again, in the
dream about my uncle, the blond beard, which seems to be
its central point, appears to have no rational connection with
the wishes for greatness which we have recognised as the
nucleus of the dream thoughts. It is only to be expected if
such dreams give a displaced impression. In complete con-
trast to these examples, the dream of Irma's injection shows
that individual elements can claim the same place in the
formation of dreams which they occupy in the dream thoughts.
The recognition of these new and entirely variable relations
between the dream thoughts and the dream content is at
first likely to excite our astonishment. If we find in a psychic
process of normal life that an idea has been culled from among
a number of others, and has acquired particular vividness in
our consciousness, we are in the habit of regarding this result
as a proof that the victorious idea is endowed with a peculiarly
high degree of psychic value — a certain degree of interest.
We now discover that this value of the individual elements in
the dream thoughts is not preserved in the formation of the

THE DREAM-WORK 285

dream, or does not come into consideration. For there is no
doubt as to the elements of the dream thoughts which are of
the highest value ; our judgment tells us immediately. In
the formation of dreams those elements which are emphasized
with intense interest may be treated as though they were in-
ferior, and other elements are put in their place which certainly
were inferior in the dream thoughts. We are at first given
the impression that the psychic intensity * of the individual
ideas does not come into consideration at all for the selection
made by the dream, but only their greater or smaller multi-
plicity of determination. Not what is important in the
dream thoughts gets into the dream, but what is contained
in them several times over, one might be inclined to think ;
but our understanding of the formation of dreams is not much
furthered by this assumption, for at the outset it will be im-
possible to believe that the two factors of manifold deter-
mination and of integral value do not tend in the same direc-
tion in the influence they exert on the selection made by the
dream. Those ideas in the dream thoughts which are most
important are probably also those which recur most frequently,
for the individual dream thoughts radiate from them as from
central points. And still the dream may reject those elements
which are especially emphasized and which receive manifold
support, and may take up into its content elements which
are endowed only with the latter property.

This difficulty may be solved by considering another im-
pression received in the investigation of the manifold deter-
mination of the dream content. Perhaps many a reader has
already passed his own judgment upon this investigation by
saying that the manifold determination of the elements of the
dream is not a significant discovery, because it is a self-evident
one. In the analysis one starts from the dream elements, and
registers all the notions which are connected with them ; it is
no wonder, then, that these elements should occur with particu-
lar frequency in the thought material which is obtained in this
manner. I cannot acknowledge the validity of this objection,
but shall say something myself which sounds like it. Among

* Psychic intensity, value, and emphasis clue to the interest of an idea
are, of course, to be kept distinct from sensational intensity, and from intensity
of that 'which is conceived.

286 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the thoughts which analysis brings to light, many can be
found which are far removed from the central idea of the
dream, and which appear distinguished from the rest as artificial
interpolations for a definite purpose. Their purpose may
easily be discovered ; they are just the ones which establish
a connection, often a forced and far-fetched one, between the
dream content and the dream thoughts, and if these elements
were to be weeded out, not only over-determination but also
a sufficient determination by means of the dream thoughts
would often be lacking for the dream content. We are thus
led to the conclusion that manifold determination, which
decides the selection made by the dream, is perhaps not always
a primary factor in dream formation, but is often the secondary
manifestation of a psychic power which is still unknown to us.
But in spite of all this, manifold determination must never-
theless control the entrance of individual elements into the
dream, for it is possible to observe that it is established with
considerable effort in cases where it does not result from the
dream material without assistance.

The assumption is not now far distant that a psychic force
is expressed in dream activity which on the one hand strips
elements of high psychic value of their intensity, and which
on the other hand creates new values, by way of over-determina-
tion, from elements of small value, these new values subse-
quently getting into the dream content. If this is the method
of procedure, there has taken place in the formation of the
dream a transference and displacement of the psychic in-
tensities of the individual elements, of which the textual
difference between the dream and the thought content appears
as a result. The process which we assume here is nothing
less than the essential part of the dream activity ; it merits
the designation of dream displacement. Dream displacement
and dream condensation are the two craftsmen to whom we
may chiefly attribute the moulding of the dream.

I think we also have an easy task in recognising the psychic
force which makes itself felt in the circumstances of dream
displacement. The result of this displacement is that the
dream content no longer resembles the core of the dream
thoughts at all, and that the dream reproduces only a disfigured
form of the dream-wish in the unconscious. But we are

THE DREAM-WORK 287

already acquainted with dream disfigurement ; we have
traced it back to the censorship which one psychic instance in
the psychic life exercises upon the other. Dream displace-
ment is one of the chief means for achieving this disfigurement.
Is fecit, cui profuit. We may assume that dream displacement
is brought about by the influence of this censor, of the endo-
psychic repulsion.*

The manner in which the factors of displacement, condensa-
tion, and over-determination play into one another in the
formation of the dream, which is the ruling factor and which
the subordinate one, all this will be reserved as the subject of
later investigations. For the present we may state, as a
second condition which the elements must satisfy in order to
get into the dream, that they must be withdrawn from the censor
of resistance. From now on we shall take account of dream

* Since I consider this reference of dream disfigurement to the censor
as the essence of my dream theory, I here insert the latter portion of a story
" Traumen wie Wachen " from Phantasien eines Realisten, by Lynkeus, Vienna,
(second edition, 1900), in which I find this chief feature of my theory
reproduced : —

" Concerning a man who possesses the remarkable quality of never dream-
ing nonsense. . . ."

" Your marvellous characteristic of dreaming as you wake is based upon
your virtues, upon your goodness, your justice, and your love for truth ; it
is the moral clearness of your nature which makes everything about you
intelligible."

" But if you think the matter over carefully," replied the other, " I
almost believe that all people are created as I am, and that no human being
ever dreams nonsense ! A dream which is so distinctly remembered that it
can be reproduced, which is therefore no dream of delirium, ahvays has a
meaning : why, it cannot be otherwise ! For that which is in contradiction
with itself can never be grouped together as a whole. The fact that time
and space are often thoroughly shaken up detracts nothing from the real
meaning of the dream, because neither of them has had any significance
whatever for its essential contents. We often do the same thing in waking
life ; think of the fairy-tale, of many daring and profound phantastic crea-
tions, about which only an ignorant person would say : ' That is nonsense !
For it is impossible.' "

"If it were only always possible to interpret dreams correctly, as you
have just done with mine ! " said the friend.

"That is certainly not an easy task, but the dreamer himself ought
always to succeed in doing it with a little concentration of attention. . . .
You ask why it is generally impossible 1 Your dreams seem to conceal
something secret, something unchaste of a peculiar and higher nature, a
certain mystery in your nature which cannot easily be revealed by thought ;
and it is for that reason that your dreaming seems so often to be without
meaning, or even to be a contradiction. But in the profoundest sense this
is by no means the case ; indeed it cannot be true at all, for it is always the
same person, whether he is asleep or awake."

288 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

displacement as an unquestionable fact in the interpretation
of dreams.

(c) Means of Representation in the Dream

Besides the two factors of dream condensation and dream
displacement which we have found to be active in the trans-
formation of the latent dream material into the manifest
content, we shall come in the course of this investigation
upon two other conditions which exercise an unquestionable
influence upon the selection of the material which gets into
the dream. Even at the risk of seeming to stop our progress,
I should like to glance at the processes by which the inter-
pretation of dreams is accomplished. I do not deny that I
should succeed best in making them clear, and in showing
that they are sufficiently reliable to insure them against
attack, by taking a single dream as a paradigm and develop-
ing its interpretation, as I have done in Chapter II. in the
dream of " Irma's Injection," and then putting together the
dream thoughts which I have discovered, and reconstructing
the formation of the dream from them — that is to say, by
supplementing the analysis of dreams by a synthesis of them.
I have accomplished this with several specimens for my own
instruction ; but I cannot undertake to do it here because I
am prevented by considerations, which every right-minded
person must approve of, relative to the psychic material
necessary for such a demonstration. In the analysis of dreams
these considerations present less difficulty, for an analysis
may be incomplete and still retain its value even if it leads
only a short way into the thought labyrinth of the dream.
I do not see how a synthesis could be anything short of com-
plete in order to be convincing. I could give a complete
synthesis only of the dreams of such persons as are unknown
to the reading public. Since, however, only neurotic patients
furnish me with the means for doing this, this part of the
description of the dream must be postponed until I can carry
the psychological explanation of neuroses far enough — else-
where— to be able to show their connection with the subject
matter under consideration.*

* 1 have since given the complete analysis and synthesis of two dreams in
the Bruchstueck einer Hysterieanalyse, 1905.

THE DREAM WORK 289

From my attempts synthetically to construct dreams from
the dream thoughts, I know that the material which is ob-
tained from interpretation varies in value. For a part of it
consists of the essential dream thoughts which would, therefore,
completely replace the dream, and which would in themselves
be sufficient for this replacement if there were no censor for
the dream. The other part may be summed up under the
term " collaterals " ; taken as a whole they represent the
means by which the real wish that arises from the dream
thoughts is transformed into the dream-wish. A first part
of these " collaterals " consists of allusions to the actual
dream thoughts, which, considered schematically, correspond
to displacements from the essential to the non-essential. A
second part comprises the thoughts which connect these non-
essential elements, that have become significant through
displacement with one another, and which reach from them
into the dream content. Finally a third part contains the
ideas and thought connections which (in the work of inter-
pretation) conduct us from the dream content to the inter-
mediary collaterals, all of which need not necessarily have
participated in the formation of the dream.

At this point we are interested exclusively in the essential
dream thoughts. These are usually found to be a complex
of thoughts and memories of the most intricate possible con-
struction, and to possess all the properties of the thought
processes which are known to us from waking life. Not
infrequently they are trains of thought which proceed from
more than one centre, but which do not lack points of con-
nection ; almost regularly a chain of thought stands next to its
contradictory correlative, being connected with it by contrast
associations.

The individual parts of this complicated structure naturally
stand in the most manifold logical relations to one another.
They constitute a foreground or background, digressions,
illustrations, conditions, chains of argument, and objections.
When the whole mass of these dream thoughts is subjected
to the pressure of the dream activity, during which the parts
are turned about, broken up, and pushed together, something
like drifting ice, there arises the question, what becomes of
the logical ties which until now had given form to the struc-

T

290 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

ture ? What representation do "if," " because," " as though,"
" although," " either — or," and all the other conjunctions,
without which we cannot understand a phrase or a sentence,
receive in the dream ?

At first we must answer that the dream has at its disposal
no means for representing these logical relations among the
dream thoughts. In most cases it disregards all these con-
junctions, and undertakes the elaboration only of the ob-
jective content of the dream thoughts. It is left to the
interpretation of the dream to restore the coherence which
the activity of the dream has destroyed.

If the dream lacks ability to express these relations, the
psychic material of which the dream is wrought must be
responsible. The descriptive arts are limited in the same
manner — painting and the plastic arts in comparison with
poetry, which can employ speech ; and here too the reason for
this impotence is to be found in the material in the treatment
of which the two arts strive to give expression to something.
Before the art of painting had arrived at an understanding of
the laws of expression by which it is bound, it attempted to
escape this disadvantage. In old paintings little tags were
hung from the mouths of the persons represented giving the
speech, the expression of which in the picture the artist
despaired of.

Perhaps an objection will here be raised challenging the
assertion that the dream dispenses with the representation
of logical relations. There are dreams in which the most
complicated intellectual operations take place, in which proof
and refutation are offered, puns and comparisons made, just as
in waking thoughts. But here, too, appearances are deceitful ;
if the interpretation of such dreams is pursued, it is found that
all of this is dream material, not the representation of intellectual
activity in the dream. The content of the dream thoughts is
reproduced by the apparent thinking of the dream, not the
relations of the dream thoughts to one another, in the determina-
tion of which relations thinking consists. I shall give examples
of this. But the thesis which is most easily established is
that all speeches which occur in the dream, and which are
expressly designated as such, are unchanged or only slightly
modified copies of speeches which are likewise to be found in

THE DREAM-WORK 291

the recollections of the dream material. Often the speech is
only an allusion to an event contained in the dream thoughts ;
the meaning of the dream is a quite different one.

I shall not deny, indeed, that there is also critical thought
activity which does not merely repeat material from the
dream thoughts and which takes part in the formation of the
dream. I shall have to explain the influence of this factor
at the close of this discussion. It will then become clear that
this thought activity is evoked not by the dream thoughts,
but by the dream itself after it is already finished in a certain
sense.

We shall, therefore, consider it settled for the present that
the logical relations among the dream thoughts do not enjoy
any particular representation in the dream. For instance,
where there is a contradiction in the dream, this is either a
contradiction directed against the dream itself or a contra-
diction derived from the content of one of the dream thoughts ;
a contradiction in the dream corresponds to a contradiction
among the dream thoughts only in a highly indirect manner.

But just as the art of painting finally succeeded in de-
picting in the represented persons, at least their intention in
speaking — their tenderness, threatening attitude, warning mien,
and the like — by other means than the dangling tag, so also
the dream has found it possible to render account of a few of
the logical relations among its dream thoughts by means of
an appropriate modification of the peculiar method of dream
representation. It will be found by experience that different
dreams go to different lengths in taking this into consideration ;
while one dream entirely disregards the logical coherence of
its material, another attempts to indicate it as completely as
possible. In so doing the dream departs more or less widely
from the subject-matter which it is to elaborate. The dream
also takes a similarly varying attitude towards the temporal
coherence of the dream thoughts, if such coherence has been
established in the unconscious (as for example in the dream of
Irma's injection).

But what are the means by which the dream activity is
enabled to indicate these relations in the dream material
which are so difficult to represent ? I shall attempt to
enumerate these separately.

292 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

In the first place, the dream renders account of the con-
nection which is undeniably present between all the parts
of the dream thoughts by uniting this material in a single
composition as a situation or process. It reproduces logical
connection in the form of simultaneousness ; in this case it acts
something like the painter who groups together all the philo-
sophers or poets into a picture of the school of Athens or of
Parnassus, although these were never at once present in any
hall or on any mountain top — though they do, however, form
a unity from the point of view of reflective contemplation.

The dream carries out this method of representation in
detail. Whenever it shows two elements close together, it
vouches for a particularly intimate connection between those
elements which correspond to them in the dream thoughts.
It is as in our method of writing : to signifies that the two
letters are to be pronounced as one syllable, while t with o
after a free space shows that t is the last letter of one word
and o the first letter of another. According to this, dream
combinations are not made of arbitrary, completely incon-
gruent elements of the dream material, but of elements that
also have a somewhat intimate relation to one another in the
dream thoughts.

For representing causal relation the dream has two methods,
which are essentially reducible to one. The more frequent
method, in cases, for example, where the dream thoughts are
to the effect : " Because this was so and so, this and that
must happen," consists in making the premise an introductory
dream and joining the conclusion to it in the form of the main
dream. If my interpretation is correct, the sequence may also
be reversed. That part of the dream which is more completely
worked out always corresponds to the conclusion.

A female patient, whose dream I shall later give in full,
once furnished me with a neat example of such a representa-
tion of causal relationship. The dream consisted of a short
prologue and of a very elaborate but well organised dream
composition, which might be entitled : "A flower of speech."
The prologue of the dream is as follows : She goes to the two
maids in the kitchen and scolds them for taking so long to prepare
" a little bite of food." She also sees a great many coarse dishes
standing in the kitchen, inverted so that the water may drop off

THE DREAM-WORK 293

them, and heaped up in a pile. The two maids go to fetch water,
and must, as it were, step into a river, ivhich reaches up to the
house or into the yard.

Then follows the main dream, which begins as follows :
She is descending from a high place, over balustrades that are
curiously fashioned, and she is glad that her dress doesn't get
caught anywhere, &c. Now the introductory dream refers
to the house of the lady's parents. Probably she has often
heard from her mother the words which are spoken in the
kitchen. The piles of unwashed dishes are taken from an
unpretentious earthenware shop which was located in the
same house. The second part of this dream contains an
allusion to the dreamer's father, who always had a great deal
to do with servant girls, and who later contracted a fatal
disease during a flood — the house stood near the bank of a
river. The thought which is concealed behind the intro-
ductory dream, then, is to this effect : " Because I was born
in this house, under such limited and unlovely circumstances."
The main dream takes up the same thought, and presents it in
a form that has been altered by the tendency to wish-fulfil-
ment : "I am of exalted origin." Properly then : " Because
I was born in such low circumstances, my career has been so
and so."

As far as I can see, the partition of a dream into two unequal
portions does not always signify a causal relation between
the thoughts of the two portions. It often appears as though
the same material were being presented in the two dreams
from different points of view ; or as though the two dreams
have proceeded from two separated centres in the dream
material and their contents overlap, so that the object which
is the centre of one dream has served in the other as an
allusion, and vice versa. But in a certain number of cases a
division into shorter fore-dreams and longer subsequent
dreams actually signifies a causal relation between the two
portions. The other method of representing causal relation
is used with less abundant material and consists in the change
of one image in the dream, whether a person or a thing, into
another. It is only in cases where we witness this change
taking place in the dream that any causal relation is asserted
to exist, not where we merely notice that one thing has taken

294 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

the place of another. I said that both methods of repre-
senting causal relation are reducible to the same thing ; in
both cases causation is represented by a succession, now by
the sequence of the dreams, now by the immediate transforma-
tion of one image into another. In the great majority of
cases, of course, causal relation is not expressed at all, but is
obliterated by the sequence of elements which is unavoidable
in the dream process.

The dream is altogether unable to express the alternative,
" either — or " ; it is in the habit of taking both members of
this alternative into one context, as though they were equally
privileged. A classic example of this is contained in the
dream of Irma's injection. Its latent thoughts obviously
mean : I am innocent of the continued presence of Irma's
pains ; the fault rests either with her resistance to accepting
the solution, or with the fact that she is living under un-
favourable sexual conditions, which I am unable to change, or
her pains are not of a hysteric nature at all, but organic. The
dream, however, fulfils all these possibilities, which are almost
exclusive, and is quite ready to extract from the dream- wish
an additional fourth solution of this kind. After interpreting
the dream I have therefore inserted the either — or in the
sequence of the dream thoughts.

In the case where the dreamer finds occasion in telling the
dream to use either — or : "It was either a garden or a living-
room," &c, it is not really an alternative which occurs in the
dream thoughts, but an " and," a simple addition. When we
use either — or we are usually describing a characteristic of
indistinctness belonging to an element of the dream which is
still capable of being cleared up. The rule of interpretation
for this case is as follows : The separate members of the
alternative are to be treated as equals and connected by
" and." For instance, after waiting for a long time in vain
for the address of my friend who is living in Italy, I dream
that I receive a telegram which tells me this address. Upon
the strip of telegraph paper I see printed in blue the following ;
the first word is blurred :

perhaps via,

or villa, the second is distinctly : Sezerno or perhaps (Casa).

THE DREAM-WORK 295

The second word, which sounds like an Italian name and
which reminds me of our etymological discussions, also ex-
presses my displeasure on account of the fact that my friend
has kept his place of residence secret from me for so long a
time ; every member of the triple suggestion for the first word
may be recognised in the course of analysis as a self-sufficient
and equally well-justified starting point in the concatenation
of ideas.

During the night before the funeral of my father I dreamed
of a printed placard, a card or poster — perhaps something
like signs in railway waiting-rooms which announce the pro-
hibition of smoking — which reads either :

It is requested to shut the eyes

or
It is requested to shut an eye

which I am in the habit of representing in the following form :

the
It is requested to shut eye (s).

an

Each of the two variations has its own particular meaning,
and leads us along particular paths in the interpretation of the
dream. I had made the simplest kind of funeral arrangements,
for I knew how the deceased thought about such matters.
Other members of the family, however, did not approve of
such puritanic simplicity ; they thought we would have to
be ashamed before the mourners. Hence one of the wordings
of the dream requests the " shutting of one eye," that is to
say, that people should show consideration. The significance
of the blurring, which we describe with an either — or, may here
be seen with particular ease. The dream activity has not
succeeded in constructing a unified but at the same time
ambiguous wording for the dream thoughts. Thus the two
main trains of thought are already distinguished even in the
dream content.

In a few cases the division of the dream into two equal
parts expresses the alternative which the dream finds it so
difficult to represent.

The attitude of the dream towards the category of anti-
thesis and contradiction is most striking. This category is

296 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

unceremoniously neglected; the word "No" does not seem
to exist for the dream. Antitheses are with peculiar preference
reduced to unity or represented as one. The dream also
takes the liberty of representing any element whatever by its
desired opposite, so that it is at first impossible to tell about
any element capable of having an opposite, whether it is to be
taken negatively or positively, in the dream thoughts.* In
one of the last-mentioned dreams, whose introductory portion
we have already interpreted (" because my parentage is such "),
the dreamer descends over a balustrade and holds a blossom-
ing twig in her hands. Since this picture suggests to her
the angel in paintings of the Annunciation (her own name is
Mary) carrying a lily stem in his hand, and the white-robed
girls marching in the procession on Corpus Christi Day when
the streets are decorated with green bows, the blossoming
twig in the dream is very certainly an allusion to sexual
innocence. But the twig is thickly studded with red blossoms,
each one of which resembles a camelia. At the end of her
walk, so the dream continues, the blossoms have already
fallen considerably apart ; then unmistakable allusions to
menstruation follow. But this very twig which is carried
like a lily and as though by an innocent girl, is also an allusion
to Camille, who, as is known, always wore a white camelia,
but a red one at the time of her menstruation. The same
blossoming twig (" the flower of maidenhood " in the songs
about the miller's daughter by Goethe) represents at once
sexual innocence and its opposite. The same dream, also,
which expresses the dreamer's joy at having succeeded in
passing through life unsullied, hints in several places (as at
the falling-off of the blossom), at the opposite train of thought
— namely, that she had been guilty of various sins against
sexual purity (that is in her childhood). In the analysis of

* From a work of K. Abel, Der Gegensinn der Urworte, 1884 (see my
review of it in the Bleuler-Freud Jahrbuch, IL, 1910), I learned with surprise
a fact which is confirmed by other philologists, that the oldest languages
behaved in this regard quite like the dream. They originally had only one
word for both extremes in a series of qualities or activities (strong — weak,
old — young, far — near, to tie — to separate), and formed separate designa-
tions for the two extremes only secondarily through slight modifications of
the common primitive word. Abel demonstrated these relationships with
rare exception« in the old Egyptian, and he was able to show distinct
remnants of the same development in the Semitic and Indo-Germanic
languages.

THE DREAM- WORK 297

the dream we may clearly distinguish the two trains of thought,
of which the comforting one seems to be superficial, the re-
proachful one more profound. The two are diametrically
opposed to each other, and their like but contrasting elements
have been represented by the identical dream elements.

The mechanism of dream formation is favourable in the
highest degree to only one of the logical relations. This
relation is that of similarity, correspondence, contiguity, " as
though," which is capable of being represented in the dream
as no other can be, by the most varied expedients. The corre-
spondences occurring in the dream, or cases of "as though,"
are the chief points of support for the formation of dreams,
and no inconsiderable part of the dream activity consists in
creating new correspondences of this sort in cases where those
which are already at hand are prevented by the censor of
resistance from getting into the dream. The effort towards
condensation shown by the dream activity assists in the
representation of the relation of similarity.

Similarity, agreement, community, are quite generally ex-
pressed in the dream by concentration into a unity, which is
either already found in the dream material or is newly created.
The first case may be referred to as identification, the second
as composition. Identification is used where the dream is
concerned with persons, composition where things are the
objects of unification ; but compositions are also made from
persons. Localities are often treated as persons.

Identification consists in giving representation in the
dream content to only one of a number of persons who are
connected by some common feature, while the second or the
other persons seem to be suppressed as far as the dream is
concerned. This one representative person in the dream
enters into all the relations and situations which belong to
itself or to the persons who are covered by it. In cases of
composition, however, when this has to do with persons,
there are already present in the dream image features which
are characteristic of, but not common to, the persons in
question, so that a new unity, a composite person, appears as
the result of the union of these features. The composition
itself may be brought about in various ways. Either the
dream person bears the name of one of the persons to whom

298 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

it refers — and then we know, in a manner which is quite
analogous to knowledge in waking life, that this or that person
is the one who is meant — while the visual features belong to
another person ; or the dream image itself is composed of
visual features which in reality are shared by both. Instead
of visual features, also, the part played by the second person
may be represented by the mannerisms which are usually
ascribed to him, the words which he usually speaks, or the
situations in which he is usually imagined. In the latter
method of characterisation the sharp distinction between
identification and composition of persons begins to disappear.
But it may also happen that the formation of such a mixed
personality is unsuccessful. The situation of the dream is
then attributed to one person, and the other — as a rule the
more important one — is introduced as an inactive and uncon-
cerned spectator. The dreamer relates something like " My
mother was also there " (Stekel).

The common feature which justifies the union of the two
persons — that is to say, which is the occasion for it — may
either be represented in the dream or be absent. As a rule,
identification or composition of persons simply serves the
purpose of dispensing with the representation of this common
feature. Instead of repeating : " A is ill disposed towards
me, and B is also," I make a composite person of A and B in
the dream, or I conceive A as doing an unaccustomed action
which usually characterises B. The dream person obtained
in this way appears in the dream in some new connection, and
the fact that it signifies both A and B justifies me in inserting
that which is common to both — their hostility towards me —
at the proper place in the interpretation of the dream. In
this manner I often achieve a very extraordinary degree of
condensation of the dream content ; I can save myself the
direct representation of very complicated relations belonging
to a person, if I can find a second person who has an equal
claim to a part of these relations. It is also obvious to what
extent this representation by means of identification can
circumvent the resisting censor, which makes the dream
activity conform to such harsh conditions. That which
offends the censor may lie in those very ideas which are con-
nected in the dream material with the one person ; I now find

THE DREAM-WORK 299

a second person, who likewise has relation to the objectionable
material, but only to a part of it. The contact in that one
point which offends the censor now justified me in forming
a composite person, which is characterised on either hand by
indifferent features. This person resulting from composition
or identification, who is unobjectionable to the censor, is now
suited for incorporation in the dream content, and by the
application of dream condensation I have satisfied the demands
of the dream censor.

In dreams where a common feature of two persons is repre-
sented, this is usually a hint to look for another concealed
common feature, the representation of which is made im-
possible by the censor. A displacement of the common
feature has here taken place partly in order to facilitate repre-
sentation. From the circumstance that the composite person
appears to me with an indifferent common feature, I must
infer that another common feature which is by no means
indifferent exists in the dream thoughts.

According to what has been said, identification or com-
position of persons serves various purposes in the dream ; in
the first place, to represent a feature common to the two
persons ; secondly, to represent a displaced common feature ;
and thirdly, even to give expression to a community of features
that is merely wished for. As the wish for a community
between two persons frequently coincides with the exchanging
of these persons, this relation in the dream is also expressed
through identification. In the dream of Irma's injection I
wish to exchange this patient for another — that is to say, I
wish the latter to be my patient as the former has been ; the
dream takes account of this wish by showing me a person who
is called Irma, but who is examined in a position such as I
have had the opportunity of seeing only when occupied with
the other person in question. In the dream about my uncle
this substitution is made the centre of the dream ; I identify
myself with the minister by judging and treating my colleague
as shabbily as he does.

It has been my experience — and to this I have found no
exception — that every dream treats of one's own person.
Dreams are absolutely egotistic. In cases where not my ego,
but only a strange person occurs in the dream content, I may

300 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

safely assume that iny ego is concealed behind that person by
means of identification. I am permitted to supplement my
ego. On other occasions when my ego appears in the dream,
I am given to understand by the situation in which it is placed
that another person is concealing himself behind the ego.
In this case the dream is intended to give me notice that in the
interpretation I must transfer something which is connected
with this person — the hidden common feature — to myself.
There are also dreams in which my ego occurs along with other
persons which the resolution of the identification again shows
to be my ego. By means of this identification I am instructed
to unite in my ego certain ideas to whose acceptance the censor
has objected. I may also give my ego manifold representation
in the dream, now directly, now by means of identification
with strangers. An extraordinary amount of thought material
may be condensed by means of a few such identifications.*

The resolution of the identification of localities designated
under their own names is even less difficult than that of
persons, because here the disturbing influence of the ego,
which is all-powerful in the dream, is lacking. In one of my
dreams about Rome (p. 164) the name of the place in which
I find myself is Rome ; I am surprised, however, at the great
number of German placards at a street corner. The latter
is a wish-fulfilment, which immediately suggests Prague ; the
wish itself probably originated at a period in my youth when I
was imbued with a German nationalistic spirit which is sup-
pressed to-day. At the time of my dream I was looking
forward to meeting a friend in Prague ; the identification of
Rome and Prague is thus to be explained by means of a desired
common feature ; I would rather meet my friend in Rome
than in Prague, I should like to exchange Prague for Rome for
the purpose of this meeting.

The possibility of creating compositions is one of the chief

causes of the phantastic character so common in dreams, in

that it introduces into the dream elements which could never

have been the objects of perception. The psychic process

which occurs in the formation of compositions is obviously

* If I do not know behind which of the persons which occur in the
dream I am to look for my ego, 1 observe the following rule : That person in
the dream who is subject to an emotion which I experience while asleep,
is the one that conceals my ego.

THE DREAM-WORK 301

the same which we employ in conceiving or fashioning a centaur
or a dragon in waking life. The only difference is that in the
phantastic creations occurring in waking life the intended
impression to be made by the new creation is itself the
deciding factor, while the composition of the dream is deter-
mined by an influence — the common feature in the dream
thoughts — which is independent of the form of the image.
The composition of the dream may be accomplished in a great
many different ways. In the most artless method of execu-
tion the properties of the one thing are represented, and this
representation is accompanied by the knowledge that they
also belong to another object. A more careful technique
unites the features of one object with those of the other in
a new image, while it makes skilful use of resemblance
between the two objects which exist in reality. The new
creation may turn out altogether absurd or only phantasti-
cally ingenious, according to the subject-matter and the wit
operative in the work of composition. If the objects to be
condensed into a unity are too incongruous, the dream activity
is content with creating a composition with a comparatively
distinct nucleus, to which are attached less distinct modifica-
tions. The unification into one image has here been unsuccess-
ful, as it were ; the two representations overlap and give rise to
something like a contest between visual images. If attempt
were made to construct an idea out of individual images of
perception, similar representations might be obtained in a
drawing.

Dreams naturally abound in such compositions ; several
examples of these I have given in the dreams already analysed ;
I shall add more. In the dream on p. 296, which describes
the career of my patient " in flowery language," the dream
ego carries a blossoming twig in her hand, which, as we have
seen, signifies at once innocence and sexual transgression.
Moreover, the twig recalls cherry-blossoms on account of
the manner in which the blossoms are clustered ; the blossoms
themselves, separately considered, are camelias, and finally the
whole thing also gives the impression of an exotic plant. The
common feature in the elements of this composition is shown
by the dream thoughts. The blossoming twig is made up of
allusions to presents by which she was induced or should have

302 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

been induced to show herself agreeable. So it was with the
cherries in her childhood and with the stem of camelias in
her later years ; the exotic feature is an illusion to a much-
travelled naturalist, who sought to win her favour by means
of a drawing of a flower. Another female patient creates a
middle element out of bath-houses at a bathing resort, rural
outside water-closets, and the garrets of our city dwellings.
The reference to human nakedness and exposure is common
to the two first elements ; and we may infer from their con-
nection with the third element that (in her childhood) the
garret was likewise the scene of exposure. A dreamer of the
male sex makes a composite locality out of two places in
which " treatment " is given — my office and the public hall
in which he first became acquainted with his wife. Another
female patient, after her elder brother has promised to regale
her with caviare, dreams that his legs are covered thick with
black caviare pearls. The two elements, " contagion " in
a moral sense and the recollection of a cutaneous eruption
in childhood which made her legs look as though studded
over with red dots instead of black ones, have here been united
with the caviare pearls to form a new idea — the idea of " what
she has inherited from her brother." In this dream parts of
the human body are treated as objects, as is usually the case
in dreams. In one of the dreams reported by Ferenczi 87
there occurred a composition made up of the person of a
physician and a horse, over which was spread a nightshirt.
The common feature in these three components was shown
in the analysis after the nightshirt had been recognised as an
allusion to the father of the dreamer in an infantile scene.
In each of the three cases there was some object of her sexual
inquisitiveness. As a child she had often been taken by her
nurse to the military breeding station, where she had the
amplest opportunity to satisfy her curiosity, which was at that
time uninhibited.

I have already asserted that the dream has no means for
expressing the relation of contradiction, of contrast, of nega-
tion. I am about to contradict this assertion for the first
time. A part of the cases, which may be summed up under the
word " contrast," finds representation, as we have seen, simply
by means of identification — that is, when an interchange or

THE DREAM-WORK 303

replacement can be connected with the contrast. We have
given repeated examples of this. Another part of the con-
trasts in the dream thoughts, which perhaps falls into the
category " turned into the opposite," is represented in the dream
in the following remarkable manner, which may almost be
designated as witty. The " inversion " does not itself get
into the dream content, but manifests its presence there by
means of the fact that a part of the already formed dream
content which lies at hand for other reasons, is — as it were
subsequently — inverted. It is easier to illustrate this process
than to describe it. In the beautiful " Up and Down "
dream (p. 267) the representation of ascending is an inversion
of a prototype in the dream thoughts, that is to say, of the
introductory scene of Daudet's Sappho ; in the dream climb-
ing is difficult at first, and easy later on, while in the actual
scene it is easy at first, and later becomes more and more
difficult. Likewise " above " and " below " in relation to
the dreamer's brother are inverted in the dream. This points
to a relation of contraries or contrasts as obtaining between
two parts of the subject-matter of the dream thoughts and
the relation we have found in the fact that in the childish
fancy of the dreamer he is carried by his nurse, while in the
novel, on the contrary, the hero carries his beloved. My
dream about Goethe's attack upon Mr. M. (p. 345) also contains
an " inversion " of this sort, which must first be set right
before the interpretation of the dream can be accomplished.
In the dream Goethe attacks a young man, Mr. M. ; in reality,
according to the dream thoughts, an eminent man, my friend,
has been attacked by an unknown young author. In the
dream I reckon time from the date of Goethe's death ; in
reality the reckoning was made from the year in which the
paralytic was born. The thought determining the dream
material is shown to be an objection to the treatment of Goethe
as a lunatic. " The other way around," says the dream ; "if
you cannot understand the book, it is you who are dull-witted,
not the author." Furthermore, all these dreams of inversion
seem to contain a reference to the contemptuous phrase,
" to turn one's back upon a person " (German : " einen die
Kehrseite zeigen " ; cf. the inversion in respect to the dreamer's
brother in the Sappho dream). It is also remarkable how

304 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

frequently inversion becomes necessary in dreams which are
inspired by repressed homosexual feelings.

Moreover, inversion or transformation into an opposite
is one of the favourite methods of representation, and one of
the methods most capable of varied application which the
dream activity possesses. Its first function is to create the
fulfilment of a wish with reference to a definite element of
the dream-thoughts. " If it were only just the other way ! "
is often the best expression of the relation of the ego to a dis-
agreeable recollection. But inversion becomes extraordinarily
useful for the purposes of the censor, for it brings about
in the material represented a degree of disfiguration which all
but paralyses our understanding of the dream. For this
reason it is always permissible, in cases where the dream
stubbornly refuses to yield its meaning, to try the inversion
of definite portions of its manifest content, whereupon not
infrequently everything becomes clear.

Besides this inversion, the subject-matter inversion in
temporal relation is not to be overlooked. A frequent device
of dream disfigurement consists in presenting the final issue
of an occurrence or the conclusion of an argument at the
beginning of the dream, or in supplying the premises of a
conclusion or the causes of an effect at the end of it. Any-
one who has not considered this technical method of dream
disfigurement stands helpless before the problem of dream
interpretation. *

Indeed in some cases we can obtain the sense of the dream
only by subjecting the dream content to manifold inversion
in different directions. For example, in the dream of a young
patient suffering from a compulsion neurosis, the memory of an
infantile death-wish against a dreaded father was hidden behind

* The hysterical attack sometimes uses the same device — the inversion of
time-relations — for the purpose of concealing its meaning from the spectator.
The attack of a hysterical girl, for example, consists in enacting a little
romance, which she has unconsciously fancied in connection with an en-
counter in the street car. A man, attracted by the beauty of her foot, addresses
her while she is reading, whereupon she goes with him and experiences a
stormy love scene. Her attack begins with the representation of this scene
in writhing movements of the body (accompanied by motions of the lijjs to
signify kissing, entwining of the arms for embraces), whereupon she hurries
into another room, sits down in a chair, lifts her skirt in order to show her
foot, acts as though she were about to read a book, and speaks to me
(answers me).

THE DREAM-WORK 305

the following words : His father upbraids him because he arrives
so late. But the context in the psychoanalytic treatment
and. the thoughts of the dreamer alike go to show that the
sentence must read as follows : He is angry at his father,
and, further, that his father is always coming home too early
(i.e. too soon). He would have preferred that his father should
not come home at all, which is identical with the wish (see page
219) that his father should die. As a little boy the dreamer
was guilty of sexual aggression against another person while
his father was away, and he was threatened with punishment
in the words : " Just wait until father comes home."

If we attempt to trace the relations between dream content
and dream thoughts further, we shall do this best by making
the dream itself our starting-point and by asking ourselves
the question : What do certain formal characteristics of dream
representation signify with reference to the dream thoughts %
The formal characteristics which must attract our attention
in the dream primarily include variations in the distinctness
of individual parts of the dream or of whole dreams in relation
to one another. The variations in the intensity of individual
dream images include a whole scale of degrees ranging from
a distinctness of depiction which one is inclined to rate as
higher — without warrant, to be sure — than that of reality, to
a provoking indistinctness which is declared to be character-
istic of the dream, because it cannot altogether be compared
to any degree of indistinctness which we ever see in real objects.
Moreover, we usually designate the impression which we
get from an indistinct object in the dream as " fleeting,"
while we think of the more distinct dream images as remain-
ing intact for a longer period of perception. We must now
ask ourselves by what conditions in the dream material these
differences in the vividness of the different parts of the dream
content are brought about.

There are certain expectations which will inevitably arise
at this point and which must be met. Owing to the fact that
real sensations during sleep may form part of the material
of the dream, it will probably be assumed that these sensations
or the dream elements resulting from them are emphasized
by peculiar intensity, or conversely, that what turns out to be

u

306 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

particularly vivid in the dream is probably traceable to such
real sensations during sleep. My experience has never con-
firmed this. It is incorrect to say that those elements of the
dream which are the derivatives of impressions occurring in
sleep (nervous excitements) are distinguished by their vivid-
ness from others which are based on recollections. The factor
of reality is of no account in determining the intensity of
dream images.

Furthermore, the expectation will be cherished that the
sensory intensity (vividness) of individual dream images has
a relation to the psychic intensity of the elements correspond-
ing to them in the dream-thoughts. In the latter intensity
is identical with psychic value ; the most intense elements
are in fact the most significant, and these are the central
point of the dream. We know, however, that it is just these
elements which are usually not accepted in the dream content
owing to the censor. But still it might be possible that the
elements immediately following these and representing them
might show a higher degree of intensity, without, however,
for that reason constituting the centre of the dream represen-
tation. This expectation is also destroyed by a comparison
of the dream and the dream material. The intensity of the
elements in the one has nothing to do with the intensity of
the elements in the other ; a complete " transvaluation of
all psychic values " takes place between the dream-material
and the dream. The very element which is transient and hazy
and which is pushed into the background by more vigorous
images is often the single and only element in which may be
traced any direct derivative from the subject which entirely
dominated the dream-thoughts.

The intensity of the elements of the dream shows itself
to be determined in a different manner — that is, by two factors
which are independent of each other. It is easy to see at
the outset that those elements by means of which the wish-
fulfilment is expressed are most distinctly represented. But
then analysis also teaches us that from the most vivid elements
of the dream, the greatest number of trains of thought start,
and that the most vivid are at the same time those which are
best determined. No change of sense is involved if we express
the latter empirical thesis in the following form : the greatest

THE DREAM-WORK 307

intensity is shown by those elements of the dream for which
the most abundant condensation activity was required. We
may therefore expect that this condition and the others im-
posed by the wish-fulfilment can be expressed in a single
formula.

The problem which I have just been considering — the
causes of greater or less intensity or distinctness of individual
elements of the dream — is one which I should like to guard
against being confused with another problem, which has to
do with the varying distinctness of whole dreams or sections
of dreams. In the first case, the opposite of distinctness is
blurredness ; in the second, confusion. It is of course unmis-
takable that the intensities rise and fall in the two scales in
unison. A portion of the dream which seems clear to us
usually contains vivid elements ; an obscure dream is com-
posed of less intense elements. But the problem with which
we are confronted by the scale, ranging from the apparently
clear to the indistinct or confused, is far more complicated
than that formed by variations in the vividness of the dream
elements ; indeed the former will be dropped from the dis-
cussion for reasons which will be given later. In isolated
cases we are astonished to find that the impression of clear-
ness or indistinctness produced by the dream is altogether
without significance for its structure, and that it originates
in the dream material as one of its constituents. Thus I
remember a dream which seemed particularly well constructed,
flawless, and clear, so that I made up my mind, while I was
still in the somnolent state, to recognise a new class of dreams
— those which had not been subject to the mechanism of con-
densation and displacement, and which might thus be desig-
nated " Fancies while asleep." A closer examination proved
that tins rare dream had the same breaches and flaws in its
construction as every other ; for this reason I abandoned the
category of dream fancies. The content of the dream, re-
duced to its lowest terms, was that I was reciting to a friend a
difficult and long-sought theory of bisexuality, and the wish-
fulfilling power of the dream was responsible for the fact
that this theory (which, by the way, was not stated in the
dream) appeared so clear and flawless. What I considered
a judgment upon the finished dream was thus a part of the

308 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

dream content, and the essential one at that. The dream
activity had extended its operations, as it were, into waking
thought, and had presented to me in the form of a judgment
that part of the dream material which it had not succeeded
in reproducing with exactness. The exact opposite of this
once came to my attention in the case of a female patient
who was at first altogether unwilling to tell a dream which was
necessary for the analysis, " because it was so obscure and
confused," and who declared, after repeatedly denying the
accuracy of her description, that several persons, herself,
her husband, and her father, had occurred in the dream, and
that it seemed as though she did not know whether her
husband was her father, or who her father was anyway, or
something of that sort. Upon considering this dream in
connection with the ideas that occurred to the dreamer in the
course of the sitting, it was found unquestionably to be concerned
with the story of a servant girl who had to confess that she was
expecting a child, and who was now confronted with doubts
as to " who was really the father." * The obscurity mani-
fested by the dream, therefore, is again in this case a portion
of the material which excited it. A part of this material
was represented in the form of the dream. The form of the
dream or of dreaming is used with astonishing frequency to
represent the concealed content.

Comments on the dream and seemingly harmless observa-
tions about it often serve in the most subtle manner to conceal
— although they usually betray — a part of what is dreamed.
Thus, for example, when the dreamer says : Here the dream
is vague, and the analysis gives an infantile reminiscence of
listening to a person cleaning himself after defecation. An-
other example deserves to be recorded in detail. A young
man has a very distinct dream which recalls to him phan-
tasies from his infancy which have remained conscious to
him : he was in a summer hotel one evening, he mistook the
number of his room, and entered a room in which an elderly
lady and her two daughters were undressing to go to bed.
He continues : " Then there are some gays in the dream ; then
something is missing ; and at the end there was a man in the

* Accompanying hysterical symptoms: Failure to menstruate and pro-
found depression, which was the chief ailment of the patient.

THE DREAM-WORK 309

room who wished to throw me out with whom I had to wrestle."
He endeavoured in vain to recall the content and purpose
of the boyish fancj^ to which the dream apparently alludes.
But we finally become aware that the required content had
already been given in his utterances concerning the indistinct
part of the dream. The " gaps " were the openings in the
genitals of the women who were retiring : " Here something
is missing " described the chief character of the female genitals.
In those early years he burned with curiosity to see a female
genital, and was still inclined to adhere to the infantile sexual
theory which attributes a male genital to the woman.

All the dreams which have been dreamed in the same
night belong to the same whole when considered with respect
to their content ; their separation into several portions, their
grouping and number, all these details are full of meaning,
and may be considered as information coming from the latent
dream content. In the interpretation of dreams consisting
of many principal sections, or of dreams belonging to the
same night, one must not fail to think of the possibility that
these different and succeeding dreams bring to expression the
same feelings in different material. The one that comes
first in time of these homologous dreams is usually the most
disfigured and most bashful, while the succeeding is bolder
and more distinct.

Even Pharaoh's dream in the Bible of the ears and the
kine, which Joseph interpreted, was of this kind. It is reported
by Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, bk. ii. chap, iii.) in greater
detail than in the Bible. After relating the first dream, the
King said : " When I had seen this vision I awaked out of my
sleep, and being in disorder, and considering with myself
what this appearance should be, I fell asleep again, and saw
another dream much more wonderful than the first, which
did still more affright and disturb me." After listening to
the report of the dream, Joseph said, " This dream, 0 King,
although seen under two forms, signifies one and the same
issue of things."

Jung," who, in his Beitrag zur Psychologie des Gerüchtes
relates how the veiled erotic dream of a school-girl was under-
stood by her friends without interpretation and continued
by them with variations, remarks in connection with reports

310 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of this dream, " that the last of a long series of dream pictures
contained precisely the same thought whose representation
had been attempted in the first picture of the series. The
censor pushed the complex out of the way as long as possible,
through constantly renewed symbolic concealments, dis-
placements, deviations into the harmless, &c." (I.e. p. 87).
Schemer 58 was we]l acquainted with the peculiarities of dream
disfigurement and describes them at the end of his theory
of organic stimulation as a special law, p. 166 : " But, finally,
the phantasy observes the general law in all nerve stimuli
emanating from symbolic dream formations, by representing
at the beginning of the dream only the remotest and freest
allusions to the stimulating object ; but towards the end,
when the power of representation becomes exhausted, it pre-
sents the stimulus or its concerned organ or its function in
unconcealed form, and in the way this dream designates its
organic motive and reaches its end."

A new confirmation of Schemer's law has been furnished
by Otto Rank 106 in his work, A Self Interpretation Dream.
This dream of a girl reported by him consisted of two dreams,
separated in time of the same night, the second of which ended
with pollution. This pollution dream could be interpreted
in all its details by disregarding a great many of the ideas
contributed by the dreamer, and the profuse relations be-
tween the two dream contents indicated that the first dream
expressed in bashful language the same thing as the second,
so that the latter — the • pollution dream — helped to a full
explanation of the former. From this example, Rank, with
perfect justice, draws conclusions concerning the significance
of pollution dreams in general.

But in my experience it is only in rare cases that one is
in a position to interpret clearness or confusion in the dream
as certainty or doubt in the dream material. Later I shall
try to discover the factor in the formation of dreams upon
whose influence this scale of qualities essentially depends.

In some dreams, which adhere for a time to a certain
situation and scenery, there occur interruptions dsecribed
in the following words : " But then it seemed as though it
were at the same time another place, and there such and such
a thing happened." What thus interrupts the main trend

THE DREAM- WORK 311

of the dream, which after a while may be continued again,
turns out to be a subordinate idea, an interpolated thought
in the dream material. A conditional relation in the dream-
thoughts is represented by simultaneousness in the dream
(wenn — wann ; if — when).

What is signified by the sensation of impeded movement,
which so often occurs in the dream, and which is so closely
allied to anxiety ? One wants to move, and is unable to stir
from the spot ; or one wants to accomplish something, and meets
one obstacle after another. The train is about fco start, and
one cannot reach it ; one's hand is raised to avenge an insult,
and its strength fails, &c. We have already encountered
this sensation in exhibition dreams, but have as yet made no
serious attempt to interpret it. It is convenient, but inade-
quate, to answer that there is motor paralysis in sleep, which
manifests itself by means of the sensation alluded to. We
may ask : " Why is it, then, that we do not dream continually
of these impeded motions ? " And we are justified in suppos-
ing that this sensation, constantly appearing in sleep, serves
some purpose or other in representation, and is brought about
by a need occurring in the dream material for this sort of
representation.

Failure to accomplish does not always appear in the dream
as a sensation, but also simply as a parfc of the dream content.
I believe that a case of this sort is particularly well suited to
enlighten us about the significance of this characteristic of
the dream. I shall give an abridged report of a dream in
which I seem to be accused of dishonesty. The scene is a
mixture, consisting of a 'private sanatorium and several other
buildings. A lackey appears to call me to an examination. I
know in the dream that something has been missed, and that the
examination is taking place because I am suspected of having
appropriated the lost article. Analysis shows that examination
is to be taken in two senses, and also yneans medical examination.
Being conscious of my innocence, and of the fact that I have been
called in for consultation, I calmly follow the lackey. We are
received at the door by another lackey, who says, pointing to me,
" Is that the person whom you have brought ? Why, he is a
respectable man." Thereupon, without any lackey, I enter a
great hall in which machines are sta,nding, and which reminds me

312 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of an Inferno with its hellish modes of punishment. I see a
colleague strapped on to one apparatus who has every reason to
be concerned about me ; but he takes no notice of me. Then I
am given to understand that I may now go. Then I cannot find
my hat, and cannot go after all.

The wish which the dream fulfils is obviously that I may
be acknowledged to be an honest man, and may go ; all kinds
of subject-matter containing a contradiction of this idea must
therefore be present in the dream-thoughts. The fact that I
may go is the sign of my absolution ; if, then, the dream
furnishes at its close an event which prevents me from going,
we may readily conclude that the suppressed subject-matter
of the contradiction asserts itself in this feature. The cir-
cumstance that I cannot find my hat therefore means : " You
are not an honest man after all." Failure to accomplish in
the dream is the expression of a contradiction, a " No " ;
and therefore the earlier assertion, to the effect that the
dream is not capable of expressing a negation, must be revised
accordingly.*

In other dreams which involve failure to accomplish a
thing not only as a situation but also as a sensation, the same
contradiction is more emphatically expressed in the form of
a volition, to which a counter volition opposes itself. Thus
the sensation of impeded motion represents a conflict of will.
We shall hear later that this very motor paralysis belongs
to the fundamental conditions of the psychic process in dream-
ing. Now the impulse which is transferred to motor channels
is nothing else than the will, and the fact that we are sure to
find this impulse impeded in the dream makes the whole process
extraordinarily well suited to represent volition and the " No "
which opposes itself thereto. From my explanation of anxiety,

* A reference to a childhood experience is after complete analysis shown
to exist by the following intermediaries : " The Moor has done his duty,
the Moor may go." And then follows the waggish question: "How old is
the Moor when he has done his duty ? One year. Then he may go." (It
is said that 1 came into the world with so much black curly hair that my
young mother declared me to be a Moor.) The circumstance that I do not
find my hat is an experience of the day which has been turned to account
with various significations. Our servant, who is a genius at stowing away
things, had hidden the hat. A suppression of sad thoughts about death is
also concealed behind the conclusion of the dream : " I have not nearly done
my duty yet ; I may not go yet." Birth and death, as in the dream that
occurred shortly before about Goethe and the paralytic (p. 345).

THE DREAM WORK 313

it is easy to understand, why the sensation of thwarted will
is so closely allied to anxiety, and why it is so often connected
with it in the dream. Anxiety is a libidinous impulse which
emanates from the unconscious, and is inhibited by the fore-
conscious. Therefore, when a sensation of inhibition in the
dream is accompanied by anxiety, there must also be present
a volition which has at one time been capable of arousing
a libido ; there must be a sexual impulse.

What significance and what psychic force is to be ascribed
to such manifestations of judgment as " For that is only a
dream," which frequently comes to the surface in dreams, I
shall discuss in another place {vide infra, p. 390). For the
present I shall merely say that they serve to depreciate the
value of the thing dreamed. An interesting problem allied to
this, namely, the meaning of the fact that sometimes a cer-
tain content is designated in the dream itself as " dreamed "
— the riddle of the " dream within the dream " — has been
solved in a similar sense by W. Stekel 1W through the analysis
of some convincing examples. The part of the dream
" dreamed " is again to be depreciated in value and robbed
of its reality ; that which the dreamer continues to dream
after awakening from the dream within the dream, is what
the dream-wish desires to put in place of the extinguished
reality. It may therefore be assumed that the part
" dreamed " contains the representation of the reality and
the real reminiscence, while, on the other hand, the continued
dream contains the representation of what the dreamer
wished. The inclusion of a certain content in a " dream
within the dream " is therefore equivalent to the wish that
what has just been designated as a dream should not have
occurred. The dream-work utilises the dream itself as a form
of deflection.

(d) Regard for Presentability

So far we have been attempting to ascertain how the dream
represents the relations among the dream-thoughts, but we
have several times extended our consideration to the further
question of what alterations the dream material undergoes
for the purposes of dream formation. We now know that
the dream material, after being stripped of the greater parts

314 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

of its relations, is subjected to compression, while at the same
time displacements of intensity among its elements force a
psychic revaluation of this material. The displacements
which we have considered were shown to be substitutions of
one idea for another, the substitute being in some way con-
nected with the original by associations, and the displacements
were put to the service of condensation by virtue of the fact
that in this manner a common mean between two elements
took the place of these two elements in the formation of the
dream. We have not yet mentioned any other kind of dis-
placement. But we learn from the analyses that another
exists, and that it manifests itself in a change of the verbal
expression employed for the thought in question. In both
cases we have displacement following a chain of associations,
but the same process takes place in different psychic spheres,
and the result of this displacement in the one case is that one
element is substituted for another, while in the other case
an element exchanges its verbal expression for another.

This second kind of displacement occurring in dream
formation not only possesses great theoretical interest, but is
also peculiarly well fitted to explain the semblance of phan-
tastic absurdity in which the dream disguises itself. Dis-
placement usually occurs in such a way that a colourless
and abstract expression in the dream-thought is exchanged
for one that is visual and concrete. The advantage, and
consequently the purpose, of this substitution is obvious.
Whatever is visual is capable of representation in the dream,
and can be wrought into situations where the abstract ex-
pression would confront dream representation with diffi-
culties similar to those which would arise if a political editorial
were to be represented in an illustrated journal. But not
only the possibility of representation, but also the interests
of condensation and of the censor, can be furthered by this
change. If the abstractly expressed and unwieldy dream-
thought is recast into figurative language, this new expression
and the rest of the dream material are more easily furnished
with those identities and cross references, which are essential
to the dream activity and which it creates whenever they are
not at hand, for the reason that in every language concrete
terms, owing to their evolution, are more abundant in associa-

THE DREAM WORK 315

tions than conceptual ones. It may be imagined that in dream
formation a good part of the intermediary activity, which tries
to reduce the separate dream-thoughts to the tersest and
simplest possible expression in the dream, takes place in the
manner above described — that is to say, in providing suitable
paraphrase for the individual thoughts. One thought whose
expression has already been determined on other grounds
will thus exert a separating and selective influence upon the
means available for expressing the other, and perhaps it will
do this constantly throughout, somewhat after the manner of
the poet. If a poem in rhyme is to be composed, the second
rhyming line is bound by two conditions ; it must express
the proper meaning, and it must express it in such a way as
to secure the rhyme. The best poems are probably those
in which the poet's effort to find a rhyme is unconscious, and
in which both thoughts have from the beginning exercised a
mutual influence in the selection of their verbal expressions,
which can then be made to rhyme by a means of slight
remodification.

In some cases change of expression serves the purposes
of dream condensation more directly, in making possible the
invention of a verbal construction which is ambiguous and
therefore suited to the expression of more than one dream-
thought. The whole range of word-play is thus put at the
service of the dream activity. The part played by words
in the formation of dreams ought not to surprise us. A
word being a point of junction for a number of conceptions,
it possesses, so to speak, a predestined ambiguity, and neuroses
(obsessions, phobias) take advantage of the conveniences
which words offer for the purposes of condensation and dis-
guise quite as readily as the dream.* That dream conception
also profits by this displacement of expression is easily de-
monstrated. It is naturally confusing if an ambiguous word
is put in the place of two ambiguous ones ; and the employ-
ment of a figurative expression instead of the sober everyday
one thwarts our understanding, especially since the dream never
tells us whether the elements which it shows are to be inter-
preted literally or figuratively, or whether they refer to the

* Cf. Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbeioussten, 2nd edit. 1912, and
" word-bridges," in the solutions of neurotic symptoms.

316 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

dream material directly or only through the agency of inter-
polated forms of speech.* Several examples of representations
in the dream which are held together only by ambiguity have
already been cited (" her mouth opens without difficulty,"
in the dream of Irma's injection : "I cannot go yet," in the
last dream reported, p. 312), &c. I shall now cite a dream
in the analysis of which the figurative expression of abstract
thought plays a greater part. The difference between such
dream interpretation and interpretation by symbolism may
again be sharply distinguished ; in the symbolic interpreta-
tion of dreams the key to the symbolism is arbitrarily chosen
by the interpreter, while in our own cases of verbal disguise all
these keys are universally known and are taken from estab-
lished customs of speech. If the correct notion occurs at the
right opportunity, it is possible to solve dreams of this sort
completely or in part, independently of any statements made
by the dreamer.

A lady, a friend of mine, dreams : She is in the opera-
house. It is a Wagnerian performance which has lasted till
7.45 in the morning. In the parquette and parterre there are
tables, around which people dine and drink. Her cousin and his
young wife, who have just returned from their honeymoon, sit
next to her at one of these tables, and next to them sits one of the
aristocracy. Concerning the latter the idea is that the young wife
has brought him back with her from the wedding journey. It
is quite above board, just as if she were bringing back a hat from
her trip. In the midst of the parquette there is a high tower, on
the top of which is a platform surrounded by an iron grating.
There, high up, stands the conductor with the features of Hans
Richter ; he is continually running around behind the grating,
perspiring awfully, and from this position conducting the orchestra,

* In general it is doubtful in the interpretation of every element of the
dream whether it —

(a) is to be regarded as having a negative or a positive sense (relation of

opposition) ;

(b) is to be interpreted historically (as a reminiscence) ;

(c) is symbolic ; or whether

(d) its valuation is to be based upon the sound of its verbal expression.

In spite of this manifold signification, it may be said that the representation
of the dream activity does not impose upon the translator any greater
difficulties than the ancient writers of hieroglyphics imposed upon their
readers.

THE DREAM-WORK 317

which is arranged around the base of the tower. She herself sits
in a box with a lady friend (known to me). Her youngest sister
tries to hand her from the parquette a big piece of coal with the
idea that she did not know that it would last so long and that she
must by this time be terribly cold. (It was a little as if the boxes
had to be heated during the long performance.)

The dream is senseless enough, though the situation is well
developed too — the tower in the midst of the parquette from
which the conductor leads the orchestra ; but, above all,
the coal which her sister hands her ! I purposely asked for
no analysis of this dream. With the knowledge I have of the
personal relations of the dreamer, I was able to interpret parts
of it independently. I knew that she had entertained warm
feelings for a musician whose career had been prematurely
blasted by insanity. I therefore decided to take the tower
in the parquette verbally. It was apparent, then, that the
man whom she wished to see in the place of Hans Richter
towered above all the other members of the orchestra. This
tower must, therefore, be designated as a composite picture
formed by an apposition ; with its pedestal it represents the
greatness of the man, but with its gratings on top, behind which
he runs around like a prisoner or an animal in a cage (an
allusion to the name of the unfortunate man), it represents
his later fate. " Lunatic-tower " is perhaps the word in
which both thoughts might have met.

Now that we have discovered the dream's method of re-
presentation, we may try with the same key to open the second
apparent absurdity, — that of the coal which her sister hands
her. " Coal " must mean " secret love."

"No coal, no fire so hotly glows
As the secret love which no one knows/'

She and her friend remain seated while her younger sister,
who still has opportunities to marry, hands her up the coal
" because she did not know it would last so long." What
would last so long is not told in the dream. In relating it we
would supply " the performance " ; but in the dream we
must take the sentence as it is, declare it ambiguous, and add
" until she marries." The interpretation " secret love " is
then confirmed by the mention of the cousin who sits with

318 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

his wife in the parquette, and by the open love-affair attri-
buted to the latter. The contrasts between secret and open
love, between her fire and the coldness of the young wife,
dominate the dream. Moreover, here again there is a person
" in high position " as a middle term between the aristocrat
and the musician entitled to high hopes.

By means of the above discussion we have at last brought
to light a third factor, whose part in the transformation of
the dream thoughts into the dream content is not to be con-
sidered trivial ; it is the regard for presentability (German :
Darstellbarkeit) in the 'peculiar psychic material which the dream
makes use of, — that is fitness for representation, for the most
part by means of visual images. Among the various subor-
dinate ideas associated with the essential dream thoughts,
that one will be preferred which permits of a visual repre-
sentation, and the dream-activity does not hesitate promptly
to recast the inflexible thought into another verbal form,
even if it is the more unusual one, as long as this form makes
dramatisation possible, and thus puts an end to the psycho-
logical distress caused by cramped thinking. This pouring
of the thought content into another mould may at the same
time be put at the service of the condensation work, and may
establish relations with another thought which would other-
wise not be present. This other thought itself may perhaps
have previously changed its original expression for the purpose
of meeting these relations half-way.

In view of the part played by puns, quotations, songs,
and proverbs in the intellectual life of educated persons, it
would be entirely in accordance with our expectation to find
disguises of this sort used with extraordinary frequency.
For a few kinds of material a universally applicable dream
symbolism has been established on a basis of generally known
allusions and equivalents. A good part of this symbolism,
moreover, is possessed by the dream in common with the
psychoneuroses, and with legends and popular customs.

Indeed, if we look more closely, we must recognise that
in employing this method of substitution the dream is gene-
rally doing nothing original. For the attainment of its purpose,
which in this case is the possibility of dramatisation without
interference from the censor, it simply follows the paths

THE DREAM-WORK 319

which it finds already marked out in unconscious thought,
and gives preference to those transformations of the suppressed
material which may become conscious also in the form of wit
and allusion, and with which all the fancies of neurotics are
filled. Here all at once we come to understand Schemer's
method of dream interpretation, the essential truth of which
I have defended elsewhere. The occupation of one's fancy
with one's own body is by no means peculiar to, or character-
istic of the dream alone. My analyses have shown me that this
is a regular occurrence in the unconscious thought of neurotics,
and goes back to sexual curiosity, the object of which for
the adolescent youth or maiden is found in the genitals of the
opposite sex, or even of the same sex. But, as Schemer and
Volkelt very appropriately declare, the house is not the only
group of ideas which is used for the symbolisation of the
body — either in the dream or in the unconscious fancies of
the neurosis. I know some patients, to be sure, who have
steadily adhered to an architectural symbolism for the body
and the genitals (sexual interest certainly extends far beyond
the region of the external genital organs), to whom posts and
pillars signify legs (as in the " Song of Songs "), to whom
every gate suggests a bodily opening (" hole "), and every
water-main a urinary apparatus, and the like. But the group
of associations belonging to plant life and to the kitchen is just
as eagerly chosen to conceal sexual images ; in the first case
the usage of speech, the result of phantastic comparisons
dating from the most ancient times, has made abundant pre-
paration (the " vineyard " of the Lord, the " seeds," the
" garden " of the girl in the " Song of Songs "). The ugliest
as well as the most intimate details of sexual life may be
dreamed about in apparently harmless allusions to culinary
operations, and the symptoms of hysteria become practically
unintelligible if we forget that sexual symbolism can conceal
itself behind the most commonplace and most inconspicuous
matters, as its best hiding-place. The fact that some neurotic
children cannot look at blood and raw meat, that they vomit
at the sight of eggs and noodles, and that the dread of snakes,
which is natural to mankind, is monstrously exaggerated
in neurotics, all of this has a definite sexual meaning. Wher-
ever the neurosis employs a disguise of this sort, it treads the

320 THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

paths once trodden by the whole of humanity in the early
ages of civilisation — paths of whose existence customs of
speech, superstitions, and morals still give testimony to
this day.

I here insert the promised flower dream of a lady patient,
in which I have italicised everything which is to be sexually
interpreted. This beautiful dream seemed to lose its entire
charm for the dreamer after it had been interpreted.

(a) Preliminary dream : She goes to the two maids in the
kitchen and scolds them for taking so long to prepare " a little
bite of food." She also sees a great many coarse dishes stand-
ing in the kitchen inverted so that the water may drip off them,
and heaped up in a pile. Later addition : The two maids go
to fetch water, and must, as it were, step into a river which reaches
up into the house or into the yard*

(b) Main dream f : She is descending from a high place J
over balustrades that are curiously fashioned or fences which are
united into big squares and consist of a conglomeration of little
squares. § It is really not intended for climbing upon ; she is
worried about finding a place for her foot, and she is glad her
dress doesn't get caught anywhere, and that she remains so re-
spectable while she is going. \\ She is also carrying a large bough
in her hand,^ really a bough of a tree, which is thickly studded
with red blossoms ; it has many branches, and spreads out.**
With this is connected the idea of cherry blossoms, but they look
like full-bloom camelias, which of course do not grow on trees.
While she is descending, she first has one, then suddenly two,
and later again only one.ff When she arrives at the bottom of

* For the interpretation of this preliminary dream, which is to be re-
garded as " casual," see p. 292.

t Her career.

X High birth, the wish contrast to the preliminary dream.

§ A composite image, which unites two localities, the so-called garret
(German Boden — floor, garret) of her father's house, in which she played
with her brother, the object of her later fancies, and the garden of a malicious
uncle, who used to tease her.

|| Wish contrast to an actual memory of her uncle's garden, to the effect
that she used to expose h